The plan Ceibal is a programme from Uruguay with the contribution of the British council to develop classes in English as a second language, there are native speakers and a lot of professionals from various countries working to teach remotely through video- conferencing for primary students in state schools.
Graham Stanley is Country Director for the British Council in Uruguay and takes part in this project. He says that remote teaching is quite challenging because you are physically removed from the learners, so you have to do it very interactively. Also is important to coordinate with the classroom teacher in Spanish in a weekly basis to make sure that teaching and learning is taking place successfully.
In order to deliver those classes it is of utmost importance to know that you will have to include digital learning technologies such videoconferencing equipment to deliver the class, websites, presentation software, etc.
In order to implement this project they started delivering laptops to students and teachers in state schools, free wireless internet and videoconferencing equipment were installed in schools across the country.
This programme is a useful tool that connects a classroom with various teachers from different countries like Argentina and Philippines. This was needed in order to solve the lack of trained and qualified English teachers. They learn not only the language, but culture too, encouraging the dialogue and improve learning and language skills.
This gives students and the teachers the opportunity to be near the new technologies and ways of teaching and learning. It also is a great chance to learn a language from native speakers, along with many English teachers from different countries. In the upcoming years it will be necessary to be up to date with the digital teaching-learning technologies that help us to stay connected, to keep in touch with our students and develop our skills in the use of devices.