In Argentina, LA PUNTA University implemented SAKAI with 2500 kids (K12). It is an experience of the one-to-one models, which aims at giving every school kid a netbook. Results show significant improvements in the areas of knowledge evaluated.

1. All Kids online
“Todos los chicos en la red”
An experience using Sakai with K12
Eng. Aníbal Carmona, CEO, Unitech (an SCA)

2. 11 de junio de 2009
Who we are
Unitech
Experts in public management computing
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3. We are Sakai Commercial Affiliate
since 2008
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4. What we do
Unitech is a well-known leader in system development, integrated solutions and IT Premium
services for the following areas:
Our experience in With our solutions the With our security Our health solutions Our solutions in
applying electronic Judicial people have solutions, the public through their education allow the
government more access to justice, security implementations management
solutions allows the and the courts can improve in the public and private of the academic and
citizens to have a bigger the efficacy of their sectors administrative
can synchronize
access investigations offer the possibility of follow up of the learning
to the public services, their activities and taking complex process in an
through the possibility of
guaranteeing the measure the discovering, interpreting decisions related to educational community
efficiency administration and exposing on prevention and sanitary and it also allows
and transparency of any service through the graphs the complex care in an easy way. the procurement of
public paperwork. production statistics information about evolution indicators.
and judicial function crimes and frauds .
indicators
Products
Used:
+ Desarrollos y soluciones de terceros.
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5. Headquarter & locations
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6. Our Workforce
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7. Our technologies skills
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8. LA PUNTA University’s Project
Sakai K12 Online
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9. Background
• All Kids Online
• An initiative within the
province’s digital agenda
• An experience of the one-to-one
model, giving every school kid a
netbook
• The purpose: measuring if ICT
improves their performance at
school
• Main activity: Test and measure
in different moments the kids’
performance
• Size: This is a pilot project
managed by Universidad de la
Punta (www.ulp.edu.ar) , and
included 30 elementary school,
100 teachers, and 2.500
students. Next: 10.000 students.
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10. Main Objectives
• To include students,
teachers, and the community
in general in the digital world
of the knowledge society
• To improve students'
learning skills
• To expand the ICT’s use at
schools, promoting digital
literacy through meaningful
learning experience
• To evaluate the inclusion of
technologies like SAKAI
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11. Methodology
• Three groups (1st to 6th
grades) of different
elementary school
• In the first group:
• Each student with a
netbook (classmate from
Intel with SAKAI and Aula 1 a
1)
• All school have broadband
internet access
• Wi-fi access has been
provided so that kids can
also have online access at
home
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12. Methodology
• In the second group:
• Each student received
the school support
software, and all call
center access have been
improved, so they can
access to the same
resources
• In the third group:
• This group was evaluated
without no additional
support
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13. Evaluation indicators
• Assessment tests on language
and mathematics.
• Tests will be taken periodically to
all students in the participating
schools of the three groups
under study, in order to evaluate
the progressive influence of the
project on students’ learning
performance.
• Types and level of technology
used by both teachers and
students. Intensity and diversity
in the use of PCs (information
search, text production, software
use, etc.)
• Management of technological
resources and institutional
relations.
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14. The Project’s Positive Impact in the Classrooms
• Teachers and classrooms showed
positive impact
• The incorporation of new technologies
has not been unnoticed in the daily
work, and machines can actually be
‘seen’ in the classrooms
• A lot of support has been given to the
plan of implementing new technologies
in the classrooms, though, of course,
with certain caution.
• Teachers and school principals have
acknowledged the importance of
facilitating students’ access to new
technologies.
• When asked about how technologies
are being used, most of them answer
that ‘we are still experiencing’ and ‘we
hope next year to start better.’ These
answers show their expectations and
positive attitudes, despite the
challenges these new technologies
present.
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15. Improvements in Students’ Learning Performances
• Students were assessed through two
standard tests on language and
mathematics in order to identify
improvements in their learning
performances.
• In this first report, focus has been
given to results of the first and
second tests so that outcomes can
be compared, and improvements
after three months can be
appreciated.
• Results demonstrate significant
improvements in both areas of
knowledge evaluated and in 3rd and
6th grade students. Beyond the
reasons for these improvements,
test results show a clear tendency in
the few months the program has
been implemented.
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16. Comparative results in the 6th grades
The following charts shows that improvements were significant in both subjects
Results of the language and mathematics tests in The percentages of correct answers obtained in the
6th grade also show improvements in both different tests by 3rd and 6th grade students
subjects, being those in language the most of each type of school are analyzed in the following
noticeable. tables
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17. Results in 3rd grades
Although these three groups were
taken into account for the
analysis of the results, it is worth
pointing out that within the
saturation group there are
schools, therefore students, that
have had the equipments since
August, that is to say three
months before the assessment,
while other schools were
given the devices only three or
four weeks before the tests.
Considering this time difference in
the implementation of the
project, the possible incidence of
the availability of equipments
is so uneven.
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18. Next Step: Intelligent Schools
• The core element in this
proposal will be a quality
contract with schools
• Commitment to apply a
mechanism to evaluate
students’ learning,
• Participation in refresher
programs for teachers and
principals organized by the ULP,
• Participation of students in
Olympiads and other activities
of the University,
• And participation of teachers
and principals in forums about
school quality improvements.
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19. TESTIMONIAL USING SAKAI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnjHDVHkeXQ
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20. Sakai’s implementation
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21. Our Sakai Software Dev. Team
• Going from Matrix to
Democratic or
Open structured teams
• Group owns the documents & code
(not individuals)
• All decisions are based on team
consensus
Why are democratic teams often favored • Depends on total cooperation of its
in Extreme Programming process? members
• Requires clear structure for the way
the team interacts
• Functional roles (e.g. moderator,
recorder) rotate among team
members
• A technical leader has external
responsibility and resolves issues
when team doesn’t reach consensus
• It is the best organizations to
contributes to Sakai’s community
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22. RED Group
(Digital Educational Resources from ULP)
• 10 high skill teacher in lengua,
maths, social
• Found and research creative web
tools for and by Kids, to use
emerging technologies for
engaging, thinking, learning,
collaborating, creating, and
innovating.
• The focus is on the use of free,
open-source, or minimal cost tools,
so the project can be replicated.
• An underlying goal is to
demonstrate how advanced
technological applications for
enhancing learning can be
implemented with only a computer
and Internet access.
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23. We adapt Sakai to K12
• Main tasks developed:
• Learn, learn and learn!
• Adapt to 7” screen
• Join to TRAMIX (and
educational resource
planning)
• Modify some
functionalities to apply
specific customer’s
requirement
• Fix some bugs
• Translate some pieces
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24. Deployment Architecture
• We size a deployment for the
following system qualities:
• Performance
• Security
• Availability
• Serviceability
• This design includes the following
advantages:
• Added performance if a single server
fails
• Availability even when more than
one server is down
• Servers can be rotated out of service
for maintenance and upgrades
• Multiple low-end servers typically
cost less than a single high-end
server
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25. Training plans
• Qty of teacher: 100
• Qty of student: 2.500
• http://www.aula.chicos.edu
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26. We take this Best Practices
with SAKAI K12 online
• Visibility- Online instructors must be “visible” to their
students. Teacher presence, tone, and involvement is the
largest factor in building an online learning community.
• What works in the face-to-face classroom works in the online
classroom, it just is represented differently. (Ice breakers,
debates, group work, clubs, field trips, birthdays, …)
• Email is the primary form of contact between teacher and
theirs students so use it effectively.
• Effective Feedback
• There should be at least one discussion board (forum) per
unit. Students and teachers post and reply to each other.
• Evaluate, evaluate, and evaluate…
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27. Contribution to Sakai’s Community
• We hope very soon contributing to the community
code base :
• a) every issue that Unitech founds and resolves
• b) all issues resolved from our clients experiencing
problems
• c) and all new functionality that Unitech develops, like
tools, or platform support, or enhancements to existing
functionality
• Translating to Spanish with the special vocabulary in
education in Argentina, helping to create a South
American Spanish version
• Hosting events and several promotion activities in
Argentina (may be Sakai Conference 2011?)
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28. Thank you!
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