Episode #37 Puerto Rico (Saturday November 28, 2020; 5:30 pm EST). This episode will discuss the challenges and possible solutions for teaching online after the Hurricane Maria in September 2017, various tropical storms, a 6.4 earthquake in January 2020 (and a major one in September 2019), and the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Life has been difficult for students and teachers, to say the least. Some context: (1) the island of Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States; (2) the main language is Spanish, and (3) the great majority of the population is below poverty level.
Because the Puerto Rico central government went bankrupt, US Congress assigned a fiscal oversight agency to manage all federal funds. The quality of the education system has not improved in decades due to political issues, mismanagement, and an educational model based on paper-based traditional curriculum combined with 20th century administrative bureaucratic procedures. Even more disconcerting, the most recent state Puerto Rican Secretary of Education was arrested by the FBI and now faces corruption and fraud charges. See NBC News, August 12, 2020, FBI makes new arrest in Puerto Rico’s former education secretary federal fraud probe.
Teachers from the Island are working hard to make up for the system deficiencies and are using the Microsoft TEAMS in combination with their telephone hotspots to communicate with kids and parents for online classes. This is due to a deficient educational system combined with a lack of connectivity. To make matters worse, the state electrical system is operating with old generators that falter and cause frequent interruptions in service disrupting educational services and life itself. To mitigate the lack of connectivity issue in Puerto Rico, recently, the state department of education gave limited speed free WiFi subscriptions to all public school students until May 2021.
At present, thousands of students in Puerto Rico still do not have computers or cell phones. While the state department of education bought computers, it has yet to give 90% of the devices to students. The state department of education also ordered curriculum materials for each grade and they have not been delivered yet to all students. Instead of reproducing the materials in Puerto Rico, they shipped the job order to Colombia. Nobody knows when they will arrive.
Rural areas of the island struggle to find Internet WiFi signals. Puerto Rico is also a small island but with many mountains and difficult transmission areas. Unfortunately, companies do not want to spend millions of dollars to connect just a few families.
Instead of providing inservice workshops of new online methodology to engage students, the state department of education are providing workshops on how to use Microsoft TEAMS. As a result, most teachers still struggle with this new way of online teaching. Parents are also frustrated because now they have to help their children at home and it takes from their work time and leisure activities. Not surprisingly, parents are putting pressure on the system to send back students to school.
More about the guests below the video
Dr. Edgar León is a graduate school faculty member for the Caribbean University teaching doctoral online graduate courses for the Education, Technology and Curriculum Graduate School. Dr. León is also an adjunct faculty member of the University of Puerto Rico Aguadilla Campus, and has been training teachers, administrators, and state agencies on how to apply technology to their actual system. He is also consulting with state and local agencies on reengineering of daily operations. This project is attempting to bring Puerto Rico from a paper environment to a digital system. His master’s and doctoral degrees are from Michigan State University (MSU). At MSA his major was in Computer Applications in Education. Dr. León has published hundreds of articles in Spanish for the Spanish News Paper Ahora News in New Jersey, USA and El Sol de La Florida. He has also published two books. His book Revolución Educativa and Asi Está Mi Isla are in Amazon Kindle for the benefit of all the public.
Carmen Noble teaches Physics, Meteorology, Astronomy, and Scientific Research at the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Specialized School in Sciences and Mathematics in Ponce, Puerto Rico. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Education with a concentration in Biology at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, Ponce Campus. As part of her professional development, she obtained a certification in Physics from the Ana G. Méndez University System, in Cupey, Puerto Rico. She completed a Master of Science in Curriculum and Teaching at Caribbean University in Ponce. Currently, she is in her third year as a Ph.D. student in Education in Curriculum and Teaching. She has mentored the VEX Robotics Program at the school for ten years in a row. She has worked as a mentor teacher and translator of research projects for the Regional, State, and International Science Fair since 2014. In 2016, she was part of the professional team of mentors of a group of high school students in the #PRCubeStars project for the construction of a nanosatellite for Perlan Project II.
Betzabeth Pagán is a poet and educator in Puerto Rico. Among her publications are: Versos de toda una vida (2011); Antagonía (2011); Vericuetos del amor (2011); Delirium (2014); Hemisferio Espejo (2014); Querencias… de extravíos y apetencias (2016); Remiendos (2020). In addition to Intoxicada (2016) under Proyecto Editorial La Chifurnia, El Salvador. In addition, Betzabeth Pagán has published in: Antología de poemas de amor (2012); Antología Fronteras de lo Imposible (2014); Divertimento II (2015). Her poems and photographs have been included in the following magazines: Entre líneas, Monolito, Corpus Litterarum, FACTUM, Panorama Cultural, Inopia, and Letras Salvajes. She participated in the 4th and 5th International Poetry Festival in Puerto Rico, as well as in the V Festival Hispanoamericano de Poesía Arquímides Cruz (2016). Betzabeth obtained second place in the National Category in the 2014 Premio Guajana, with her poem Alucinaciones.