Case Study: Web Portal for schools in Parana, Brazil
The education secretariat of
Parana developed a web portal using F/LOSS and this system was also released as
F/LOSS. This web portal was in Portuguese language. This system enables the
educators from public sector to work together and develop course contents for
different fields. In 2006, it had over 300 materials published for education
sector. This web portal doesn’t only help the education sector in Brazil, but
for all the people who understand Portuguese. It has a great hand in
contributing to Portuguese contents on the internet (Apikul, 2006).
This system offers educators
an environment where they can effectively collaborate and develop course
content. Before publishing the materials, to maintain quality, it is checked by
another team of experts. This way not only the knowledge is shared among the
educators but also the experience. The
web portal works on low speed internet connection. There is an offline version
of this system available as well so that even people who cannot effort internet
can benefit from the resources available in the web portal (Apikul, 2006).
This day
to day educational portal promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, localising
materials helpful for education purpose and serves the educational sector in an
open, interactive, dynamic and cultural way. It has been deployed in 44 million
computers and 2037 educational sector is estimated to benefit from it including
the ones in Parana. The web portal has helped in development of appropriate
methodologies so that the use of internet is experienced by the students,
teachers and the school. The initiative was also to establish a mechanism for
evaluating their impact on improving public education (Governo do Estado do
Paraná, n.d.). It offers:
It offers
database which contains articles, monographs, thesis and dissertations form
universities in Brazil.
·
Download Services
It offers different F/LOSS
which is used for educational and other normal purposes. The aim is to provide
the community with education materials that can assist them in operating
computers and equipment, development and enrichment classes and studies. This
also includes F/LOSS related educational games which will help a child enjoy
and learn at the same time.
·
General News on
Education and Disciplines
It offers the news related to
education sector which could be interest to the teachers as well as courses,
lectures, exhibitions and projects launched in the area.
It provides addresses and
links to newspaper and magazine which is selected by the faculty of day to day
education portal.
·
Museum Catalogue
It offers the information
about selected national and international museums to keep the educator informed
about the exhibitions and other work done in these areas, as well as scheduled
visits, works and projects developed.
·
Maps
It offers the presentation of
physical and interactive maps of all countries of the world, with relevant
information such as location, urban and rural population, population density
and others.
·
Movies suggestion
It offers synopses of several
movies along with the suggestion of educational approach and critical reviews.
The aim is to provide teachers and students with the knowledge outside of the
books.
·
Multimedia
It offers videos, interviews
and documentaries about the environment, Brazilian literature and art,
pedagogical figures (such as Paulo Freire) etc. It also provides images of
different sectors and audio which includes sound of natures, interviews and
children’s story and fables. These multimedia are all royalty free.
The aim is to assist the
educators in making of teaching digital as well as interesting and interactive.
·
Library Catalogue
It offers a catalogue which is
fast and functional to research in all libraries in state of Parana. Various
types of documents, such as manuals, videotapes, monographs, periodicals and
technical reports are included.
·
Consultation with
schools
It offers consultation of
administrative data, functional and teaching of all the schools in Panama. It
helps to provide consultation about enrolment as well as overall academic
performance of the students. It also lets society view the management of state
schools to ensure a transparent government management.
It allows employees of the
school to access links relating to school management: information about
projects and programs undertaken by State bodies, training programs and
professional education courses offered by the Education Department of Paraná.
·
Student Support
It offers the students access
to all libraries in the state of Parana, where they could research about the
materials they need for their course. It provides information about various
course offered by some universities of Brazil including a guide for choosing a
professional or a carrier. It also provides the opportunity for students to
make their portfolio which results in benefits such as getting discount in
entertainment industry and other cultural activities (Governo do Estado do
Paraná, n.d.).
This web portal has made a
large impact for the education sector in Parana. We can see the statistics of
higher education institutions (HEIs) of Parana compared to rest of the southern
region. 183 HEI were there in Parana in 2007 holding almost 50% of the HEI’s in
South Brazil. In Parana state, from 2000 to 2007, there was rise in number of
faculty members (from 35.2% to 40.4% of the total members in the South region),
rise in number of PhD’s (from 35.2% to 37.5% of the total number of PhD’s in
South region) and rise in number of Doctors in public education sector (from
61.2% to 62.8%). Parana had 41.1% of the total courses for the South region and
also leads in the number of technological education courses offered for his
region. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report
also states about the difference of quality found in education between public
and private education sector (for HEI’s), where the graduates from the former
having superior qualification compared to the latter sector (Paraná’s Regional Steering Committee, 2010).
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