The Reinventing Education partnership in Brazil is implementing Riverdeep Learning Village to improve teacher professional development and instruction. Since the program began in the State of Rio de Janeiro in 1999, more than 2,250 teachers and their students throughout the country have participated in the program. Teachers have collaborated to develop effective science lessons; teachers and their students throughout the country are discussing environmental issues online; and teachers are helping their students learn how to use technology to research and gather information about their communities, documenting local history and planning how to protect their local culture and special treasures.
As part of the partnership, IBM is working with two local partners, Anima Mundi and Instituto de Matematica Pura e Applicada, to implement a Linux application that will transform a ThinkPad and a video camera into an editing and animation tool, allowing teachers and students in secondary schools to develop new content that can be used to teach students at lower grade levels. The first phase of the project has already concluded and new professional development activities are planned for 2004. |
