E.dúacte, our Guayaquil client

October 13-14, 2014 — Our IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) mission focuses on our client Fundación E.dúcate. We will work with them four four weeks. Guayaquil Edúcate is a non-profit organization focused on helping disadvantaged youths in Ecuador. The foundation administers currently administers two major "clusters" of programs:

• Mas Tecnología (more technology) provides education technology infrastructure and applications to public high schools (colegios fiscales), public elementary schools (escuelas fiscales), and low-cost private elementary schools (particulares populares escueles); and
• Jovenes Productivos delivers entry-level job skills and placement training for disadvantaged youths previously unable to qualify for employment through formal education.

IBM's CSC Team for Edúcate includes Sophi Asmus (Germany), Aideen Dunne (Ireland), and I. Our primary Edúcate hosts are Patricia Hernandez de Sosa and Johanna Meza. We spend our days in Edúcate's offices, located in the Urdesa neighborhood of Guayaquil.

The core Edúcate team for IBM Corporate includes Sophies Asmus (Germany), Aideen Dunne (Ireland), and I. We work directly with Doctora Patricia Hernandez de Sosa, Presidente Ejecutiva Fundación Edúcate and Johana 

Edúcate's staff consists of about thirty-five full-time employees. The combine their skills in project management, education-technology development, technology management, and fundraising to improve opportunities for young people growing up under remarkably challenging circumstances. Edúcate's efforts have touched the lives of thousands.

Doctora Particia Hernandez de Soza at a recent meeting with Guayaquil civic leaders working to raise awareness of the needs of Guayaquil youth and Edúcate's role in filling them.

Edúcate provides a full lifecycle of education-technology delivery and management to hundreds of Guayaquil skills. They deliver and support Information and Communications Technology (ICT) equipment both purchased by La Municipilidad de Guayaquil and donated by corporations and individuals. Edúcate's builds computer laboratories shared by students who do not have technology at home.

Edúcate raises funds through donations from a broad variety of sources.  The sign reads, "A donation is one of the best teachers of solidarity that exists."

Edúcate represents a case study in low-cost innovation in emerging markets.  The foundation's Mas Tecnología includes a formative assessment tool.  A formative assessment tool gives teachers day-by-day feedback about how students' learning progress. This is significant because formative assessment tools are not yet all that common in education technology environments within the U.S. and other developed countries. 

Apendijaze Personalizado Complementario y Interconectado (APCI) is Edúcate's solution — It was developed specifically for Ecuador. It is highly interactive and enjoyable for students to use.  Guayaquil teachers up-to-the minute reports of how students are progressing. The tool currently covers mathematics and Spanish language for all years of elementary and high school.  Student's complete animated, interactive exercises to demonstrate their progress towards meeting Ecuador's national education standards.

Edúcate developed APCI, a formative assessment tool for Ecuadorian primary and secondary education.

Edúcate fills a vital role in Guayaquil's education environment. It fills a key gap that Ecuador's public sector is unprepared to address. Through 2010 it had delivered nearly 3000 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) labs to hundreds of high schools. We estimate that more than 120,000 individual students have been touched by this effort.

A couple of the students impacted by Edúcate's efforts.  The sign reads, "We give thanks to the Municipality of Guayaquil for working about the education of Guayaquil girls and for connecting them to the world."