Open AccessSelf-sustaining Crowdsourcing: Beyond the Wikipedia Model to Make pK-12 Computer Science Education Universal in Developing Countries
Author(s) -
Armando Sanchez,
Javier Peraza
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
epic series in education science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
ISSN - 2516-2306
DOI - 10.29007/gcg8
Subject(s) - crowdsourcing , club , latin americans , developing country , the internet , civil society , work (physics) , computer science , political science , knowledge management , public relations , medical education , sociology , world wide web , engineering , economic growth , medicine , economics , mechanical engineering , politics , law , anatomy
Progracademy (PRG) is a program that seeks to make universal the development of 21st-century competencies (6Cs) -with emphasis on computational ones, in underprivileged pK-12 students of developing countries. PRG proposes a self- sustaining crowdsourcing solution applied to education, with the two key innovative components: i) extra-supported online Computer Science courses (MaxiMOOCs on Collaborative Programming) for pK-12 students who work in teams during school time (PRG Lab) and/or after school (PRG Club), and ii) an online platform that empowers and coordinates online volunteers, teachers, and parents in order to support students. PRG is a solution for underprivileged schools’ severe limitations of resources and institutional capacity to develop 6Cs in students. PRG’s seeks a quadruple social impact at scale and cost-effectively: i) achieve students’ 6Cs educational objectives, ii) build capacity in the schools’ teachers and administrators to educate in 6Cs, iii) develop 6Cs in the volunteers that support the students, and iv) mobilize sustainable support from the for-profit sector and civil society to the public education system. After a successful pilot in a Venezuelan school belonging to the largest educational NGO in Latin America –Fe y Alegria, PRG is now being piloted in Ecuador in two schools from the same NGO.