In COVID crisis, Humphrey fellow sees opportunity for educators
As the novel
coronavirus pandemic unfolded, Humphrey fellow Barbara Cecilia Barrios Dumanoir
quickly saw a connection between the public health crisis and her interest in technological
literacy.
“Teaching using
technological tools is very different than (in-person) classes, and we cannot
use the same methodology,” she wrote in
Spanish for the newspaper La Prensa. “It is necessary to adapt the classes to
the remote and virtual environment, thinking that we are in a scenario that is
out of our control and that we need to create a new education ecosystem.”
The executive director
of the United Nations Population Fund and a United Nations data analyst at
least one other expert in international planning retweeted a link to Barrios’ May
20 article, “Panama: The Educational Challenge” (“Panamá: El reto educativo.”) The
article also has led to a radio interview and an invitation to lead an online
workshop on the topic.
At the invitation of Panama’s Ministry of Education,
Barrios facilitated a training session about creating online courses. The early
May Zoom event drew 42 teachers. “Teachers and professors are interested,” she
said. “They just need the tools to facilitate their work.”
After Humphrey Fellow Douglas Lopez of Venezuela
contacted Barrios about her work, they and Fellow Angelica Rocha of Guatemala
began planning a webinar called “Leadership and Innovation in Virtual STEAM
Teaching for Higher Education.” When they return to their countries they plan to continue collaborating
to improve remote/virtual education knowledge. Lopez and Rocha were fellows at
Penn State University.
In Panama, “some provinces lack infrastructure,” Barrios
said. “Not everyone has access to computers or internet or even a cellphone. In
other places they don’t have human resources. A student of mine was a high
school principal. They had computers but no computers to teach.”
Educators everywhere should think more broadly about teaching
options, she said. “Many times when we think about remote education we think
the only tools are the internet and computer and phone, but before then we had
radio and TV.”
There’s a lesson for the United States and other
countries, she said. The Catholic Church in Panama, for example, has used radio
for education for years. “The radio stations give free time to reach people who
live in very difficult areas where people cannot attend schools,” she said. “Many
of those places do not have electricity, but they have radios that can be used
with batteries.”
Barrios had planned to go to New York for her
professional affiliation at the United Nations Family Planning Agency (UNFPA). Because
of New York’s stay-at-home orders, she completed that work remotely.
She worked on a project creating interactive maps that
show where African descendants live in Latin America and the Caribbean to
target programs that will improve access to education and opportunities. A
second project reviewed progress on the 1994 Nairobi Statement, which emerged
from the United Nations’ International Conference on Population and
Development. Goals of that conference focus on universal education; infant and
child mortality; maternal mortality; and reproductive and sexual health
services.
As a fellow, she volunteered at Syracuse’s Seymour Elementary
School, where she learned library and computer practices she hopes can be
applied to schools in Panama. She also worked on parent engagement with MANOS,
a dual language program for 3- and 4-year-olds. She also served as an
interpreter (English/Spanish) and translated forms to Spanish.
She hopes the unexpected shift to online teaching sets
new standards and spurs innovation.
“Teachers and professors from public and private
schools should be offered training to adjust their teaching plans, and to learn
how to use the advantages of technology,” she concluded the La Prensa article.
“This situation can be used as an opportunity to tackle the gaps and we should
be able to advance.”
06/08/20