Affordable Wireless Connectivity Linking Poor Latin American Communities Binding Their Schools by Sharing ICT Training for “Maestros” of Primary Schools

Abstract

A very poor neighborhood in Argentina that has many features of lower middle class is called “barrio carenciado”. Many heads of the families are unemployed and although children have access to schools it is common that they do not finish their basic instruction. In many cases NGOs play a fundamental role in changing this reality. In this presentation we detail the implementation of a test bed where 14 families and a school were provided with computers, Internet access and were educated out of digital illiteracy. Connectivity was provided by Wireless Mesh Networking (WMN). The research project, was carried out by a group of researchers from the Universidad de La Plata with different backgrounds in collaboration with the NGO Barrios del Plata (a chapter of Muhammad Yunus´s Grameen Bank). The study monitored the changes in families’ life (in particularly children education and parents opportunities related to obtaining work). The deployment of WMN in a such a broad area, aimed to define the possible lowest cost implementation, and conforms an important part of the research activities. The school #502, originally a node of the WMN, has become a “Laboratory for the use of innovative methodologies in ICT training of primary school teachers”. The project was financed through an award given in a public competition by Microsoft research and CentralTech, a leading Argentinean educational center.

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