Success Stories
Carlos Pellegrini High School implements an e-learning project with the support of e-ABC Learning and e-Magis LMS

400 teachers and 2.300 students will benefit from the initiative, which will combine the work done in classrooms and the ability to generate more contacts between students and teachers, with the incorporation of a technological and innovative LMS specially designed for educational institutions.

 

To put technology at the service of teaching in the various learning scenarios of a college school of pre-university studies, the Carlos Pellegrini High School - Buenos Aires University, is developing the project UBATIC. In this project Carlos Pellegrini Business High School relies on the support of e-ABC Learning, the leader implementation company in e-learning projects in Latin America, which supplied the e-Magis LMS, as a technological solution for the initiative.

 

UBATIC project consists of three main items:

  • Establish a virtual communication platform to support classroom activities, which can standarize the work that a significant amount of teachers has been doing by developing communication with their students through email, blogs, forums, and wikis. “Here is where we focus on the e-Magis tool, provided by e-ABC Learning” highlights Leandro Esteban Rodriguez - Vice Head of the afternoon shift and project director of UBATIC - Carlos Pellegrini High School.
  • Establish a technological means of production of audiovisual materials, which can be used and duplicated together with the Conectar Igualdad Program. This decision is based on the necessity of giving the School the tools to produce materials and to improve teaching techniques.
  • University contact with the community and strengthening of the two previous working lines, thus creating networks which foster the communication of the School with the Community.

 

“The introduction of a technological starting point similar to that addressed in the three items above will benefit both the School teachers (400) and the students (2.300) and will also help to communicate the community the experiences and products that are developed in the School”, Leandro Rodriguez ensures.

 

Initiatives of the following departments have been considered to implement this project: Law, Mathematics, Language and Literature, Art, Music, Solidarity Action, Humanities, English, Geography, Accounting Systems and Management,  Economy, and French.

 

In the case of the Virtual Cultural Center project of the Music Department the School-Community exchange place may be identified with other Pre-University Schools. In the case of the Solidarity Action area the exchange with the community takes place in Geriatric Institutions.

 

According to Rodriguez, Carlos Pellegrini High School  must currently introduce innovations in teaching and in daily tasks in which the process of teaching and learning are at stake. It is also necessary to face the challenge of taking advantage of the 1:1 model introduction thanks to the Conectar Igualdad Program, in which each teacher and student are provided with a netbook.

 

 

“Information and communication technologies (ICTs) understood as the set of technologies that involve electronic, informatics (hardware and software) and telecommunications, are producing a fast-paced change in our lives; a revolution that is part of a broader set of changes in our society and that is labeled with a name: Information Society”, Leandro Rodriguez explains.

 

“Network society is quickly changing the basis of the previous society. This new society, the information society, is characterized by the influence that new technologies of information and communication have in the several social, economic, political and educational environments. They are technological innovations that are produced in a constant and fast manner, fostering the birth of new areas in knowledge fields, as global economy, work and employment, collaborative work, leisure activities and culture, new educational models and new training needs”, the expert adds.

 

e-Magis: a brand new e-learning proposal for schools

 

When asked about the motivations of the choice of the e-Magis LMS, Rodriguez answered that the decision is based on the long time experience that e-ABC learning has in the market, its relationship with the e-learning LMS development for Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), the fact that the installation process of e-Magis in the School network would not be complex, as well as the the possibility of continuing the development of applications together. “When choosing an e-learning solutions provider we looked for experience, interface and knowledge to analyze academic and technical needs of the institution”.

 

“Of all the modules that e-Magis offered the most relevant for us is the virtual platform, due to its importance to enrich our work in the classroom and its capacity to generate more contact with our students”, Rodriguez explains.

 

In this respect Agustina Riera, Business Manager of e-ABC Learning, points out that e-Magis is a solution specific for schools, as it gathers the experience gained by the company in the projects developed in primary and high schools with focus in successfully incorporating technologies to this kind of institutions.

 

Carlos Biscay, CEO of e-ABC Learning, stresses that e-Magis is a specific and innovative offer designed for schools and other educational institutions (K-12), that consists of virtual applications that enhance the process of teaching  and learning, resources for teachers and students and services that aim at helping the users successfully complete related projects.

 

Products and services offered by e-Magis:

  • e-Magis Moodle: virtual, educational LMS, specifically designed for schools
  • virtual library: school’s digital repository of resources
  • e-Magis Portal: resource bank for teachers
  • Videoconference classroom, based on Adobe Connect and provided by the OFIR company
  • Coordination: counseling, follow-up and training for teachers, linked with the implementation of virtual educational projects and all the products that belong to e-Magis
  • Developing custom contents
  • Virtual classes of Moodle application and interactive blackboard

 

According to Biscay, e-Magis not only presents the technological LMS needed for any project related to the products that are part of it, but it also provides the educational institution with the needs analysis, project implementation and customized solutions development. “These solutions are put forward by professionals with vast experience in implementing ICTs in the educational environment”, he highlights.

 

Details of the initiative

 

The general project started in May 2012 and will culminate in December 2013. In particular, the installation of the LMS started in July 2012, and its implementation and the administrators’ training are expected to be finished during August 2012.

 

Regarding content development, Leandro Rodríguez informs that the institution has been working on the teachers’ training and ICTs for a few years now. “With this goal in mind we work jointly with UBA’s Centro de Innovación en Tecnología y Pedagogía as well as with the courses provided by the Conectar Igualdad Program. Based on this training and on the teachers’ experience, we aim at generating our own contents for the LMS”.

 

“We think that during the first year of implementation we will have about 50 courses running and the second year the number will be around 200”, adds Leandro Rodriguez, who states that in the future e-Magis may interact with their new virtual school management system.

 

On the main challenges he will face in the near future in this respect, Leandro mentions: carrying out the installation of a technological basis, which will allow the School to be at the peak of today’s educational innovations and make the community commit to this project”.

 

“It is important for e-ABC Learning  that an institution as important as the Carlos Pellegrini Business High School has trusted us to participate in its ICTs program, given the fact that the School is a beacon for other schools in Argentina”, pointed out Agustina Riera, Business Manager of e-ABC Learning.

February 2014