Latin America

Definition of the supraregion

Latin America is a term used most commonly to indicate as a whole the countries that comprise Central America and South America. More particularly, as noted on Wikipedia:

Latin America designates all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e., languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and the creole languages based upon these.

It is a controversial term to some, and may be used differently by inhabitants of different regions.

Spanish and Portuguese are the predominant languages of Latin America (with Portuguese spoken only in Brazil, the most populous country in the region).

See Central America for a list of the countries in that region.

See South America for a list of the countries in that region.

List of virtual schools found

Argentina

1. ORT Virtual Campus offers virtual education at all levels from secundaria ciclo básico to higher education.
2. El Surco. La Escuela Virtual Primary, secondary and adults - Mendoza Argentina. Website is currently unreachable - this is Facebook page

Belize

No evidence found of virtual education at school level, with the exception of a distance learning programme for basic literacy, but this is not a specific school.

Bolivia

1. Escuela PorvenirThe goal of this Village Power 2000 project is to provide electricity and an Internet connection to a school in deep rural Porvenir, Bolivia. Porvenir is a village of 600 indigenous people living in the Amazon rainforest. Services are limited -- a diesel generator provides electricity sporadically, there is one satellite telephone and there is a small village school. The school provides education to grade 6. Geographically isolated, youth do not travel to another village or town to continue their education. Educational opportunities literally end at grade 6.
2. In Bolivia there is an IICD supported programme, the National ICT Programme for the Education Sector. The national ICT programme for education is focused on assisting and improving the quality of primary and secondary education in Bolivia through ICT. Key activities are:

• Enhancing access to ICT for teaching and learning. This is done by setting up of education community telecentres linked to primary and secondary schools in all nine departments of Bolivia
• Providing digital educational content through the education portal.

Brazil

1. The Colégio Militar de Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, started its distance learning activities in 2002. Its aim is to serve students that are between 10-18 years old and registered from the 6th year of the fundamental cycle to the 3rd year of the secondary education (ensino medio), whose parents are on duty in the Amazon area or abroad. The school caters for approximately 400 students every year, located in 33 different countries. Among the media used for delivering the courses, these are the most used: email, Skype, telephone, fax, mail and a virtual learning environment. The students receive printed materials, CDs and DVDs, all delivered through the Brazilian air force.
2. The EVESP Escola Virtual de Programas Educacionais is an initiative of the São Paulo State Education Secretariat. The school was authorized by decree dated 20th May 2011. The aim is to offer 50 thousand language courses places for students of the São Paulo State Education System. The virtual school also targets the education of hard-to-reach audiences such as prisoners, Afro-Brazilians and the indigenous population.
3. The Fundação Bradesco Escola Virtual extends the pedagogical project of the Bradesco Foundation beyond the borders of its 40 school units. Dedicated to offering distance learning courses - Internet-based and "semi-presential" segments of Basic Education, Training and Youth and Adult Education, this portal for e-learning is available to students and alumni, educators and staff of Bradesco Foundation, as well as people in the community and unemployed people who wish to obtain a new qualification or retraining for work. Its web site is http://www.ev.org.br/Paginas/Home.aspx
4. INED Instituto Nacional de Educação a Distância (INED) is a private school based in São Paulo offering courses targeting the education of young and adult individuals – a population described as EJA (Educação de Jovens e Adultos – Education of the Young and Adults). It also offers technical courses, preparing for the job market (equivalent to college – in Brazil described as Educação Tecnológica) - these courses can be attended by individuals of all age groups that qualify for technical secondary education (ensino médio técnico). The technical courses at INED are licensed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education to be offered at a distance, in the blended learning mode as the Brazilian law requires (with face-to-face assessments). The courses at INED are offered mostly using virtual technologies (email, discussion forums) and the students also receive printed course materials.
5. PROCEFET (Programa de Iniciação Tecnológica e Cidadania do CEFET / Rio Grande do Norte) is a basic, entry level course on Technology and Citizenship offered at a distance, aimed at students of the ninth year of the fundamental years of public schools. The aim is to provide a revision of subjects such as Portuguese and Mathematics with focus on themes such as citizenship and ethics in relation to day-to-day activities at home, at school and in their professional environment. The mix of media used in the course includes printed materials, TV classes recorded on the university channel – available online and online assessment.

Chile

There are currently two fully virtual schools in Chile:

1. Think Academy Virtual International School
2. Yo Aprendo.

Both developments date from 2007/2008 and are still relatively small in terms of enrolments - 21 at Think Academy Virtual International School and 37 at Yo Aprendo.

Colombia

1. Plataforma Escuela Virtual is the VLE for Escuela Virtual de Caldas. The last entry on the school blog is from 2008 and the VLE does not appear to have progressed beyond the first two stages of development.
2. A journal article describes the founding in 1998 of the first virtual school in Bogotá -Colombia Virtual Ibero America, Virtual Century College XXI, with permission from the education authorities to certify students in primary and secondary education, who study at primary and secondary levels. Students may attend one day a week for tutorials and sports and cultural activities. It was accredited by ICFES, but there is no clear link to a current website. Source: [www.quadernsdigitals.net/index.php?accionMenu=hemeroteca...id...]

Mexico

1. Telesecundaria, the Satellite Television Network (EDUSAT): The government accommodated a large proportion of the enrolment growth in lower secondary, particularly in rural areas, through the expansion of the telesecundaria model since it required very little infrastructure and only one facilitator-teacher per grade. Lectures are given via satellite TV in 15-minute programs. In 2002, 1.2 million students were enrolled which represented about 20 percent of the total enrolment in this level. Annual costs per student were about 16 percent higher than in regular schools (counting TV programme production, supplementary materials, teacher salaries, and infrastructure). Distance learning has proved to be a cost-effective model although student achievement results and completion rates are not as high as they are in regular secondary schools;
2. The School Network of Educational Computer Science (Red Escolar): using technology, students and teachers develop collaborative projects related to various subjects. For instance, they participate in reading and writing contests, puzzles, and team research.
3. Enciclomedia : it started in 2003-04 and consisted of the digitization process of primary education textbooks in CD-ROM format.
4. For some years it has been possible to study online for the Bachillerato (school leaving exam) at Colegio de Bachilleres (SEAD)
5. telecentre.org reports on an initiative linking primary and secondary school children in Mexico, Bolivia and Peru for some mathematics education. This is a current programme of telecentre.org - see separate entry for more details.

Panama

The Instituto Freire offers a Bachillerato Virtual in several Spanish-speaking American countries, including Panama. The Institute's Spanish-American base appears to be in Colombia.

Paraguay

There do not appear to be any virtual schools in Paraguay, although US virtual schools [e.g. Wilostar3D] market actively.

List of virtual colleges found

Brazil

1. The Escola Técnica do Brasil (Open Technical School of Brazil) is a national programme that aims to expand professional education in Brazil. It has been developed under the umbrella of the former Distance Education Secretariat (SEED) and the Professional and Technological Education Secretariat (SETEC). Its objective is to take technical courses to distant regions of Brazil and to the peripheral areas of big Brazilian cities. The aim is to encourage the young to conclude secondary education (ensino médio) and join the active worforce. The Escola Técnica do Brasil is therefore an important step towards the democratization of public and free secondary education in Brazil in the distance learning mode. In 2008 alone for example 50 thousand places have been offered, and 193 regional centers with computers and libraries have been inaugurated across the country. Courses in 14 subject areas were on offer, to include computing, nursing, metallurgy, environmental studies, tourism, civil engineering, business management, health and social care, commerce, arts, chemistry and telecommunications. In total, 75 million Reais were invested, 143 courses offered, and 26 thousand students registered. The model of E-Tec is similar to the one of UAB (Universidade Aberta do Brasil – Open University of Brasil). The Ministry of Education (MEC) is responsible for providing financial assistance for the production of courses. The states, federal district and municipalities provide the infrastructure, the equipment, the human resources and other items needed for each institution running the courses. The target was to provide infrastructure to 1000 regional centres and to register 200 thousand students up until 2010.
2. The Fundação Bradesco Escola Virtual extends the pedagogical project of the Bradesco Foundation beyond the borders of its 40 school units. Dedicated to offering distance learning courses - Internet-based and "semi-presential" segments of Basic Education, Training and Youth and Adult Education, this portal for e-learning is available to students and alumni, educators and staff of Bradesco Foundation, as well as people in the community and unemployed people who wish to obtain a new qualification or retraining for work. Its web site is http://www.ev.org.br/Paginas/Home.aspx
3. INED Instituto Nacional de Educação a Distância (INED) is a private school based in São Paulo offering courses targeting the education of young and adult individuals – a population described as EJA (Educação de Jovens e Adultos – Education of the Young and Adults). It also offers technical courses, preparing for the job market (equivalent to college – in Brazil described as Educação Tecnológica) - these courses can be attended by individuals of all age groups that qualify for technical secondary education (ensino médio técnico). The technical courses at INED are licensed by the Brazilian Ministry of Education to be offered at a distance, in the blended learning mode as the Brazilian law requires (with face-to-face assessments). The courses at INED are offered mostly using virtual technologies (email, discussion forums) and the students also receive printed course materials.
4. The Projeto Bem Receber Copa 2014 (Good Hosting Project - World Cup 2014), is sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism. It offers online distance learning courses for employees of hotels, aiming to qualify them free of charge to be ‘good hosts’ during the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Age range: all. The Ministry of Tourism aims to qualify 306 thousand professionals up until 2013. These professionals are: porters, receptionists, room cleaners and hotel managers.
5. SENAI (SENAI Distance Education Network) offers a number of professional and technical courses aiming to prepare individuals for the job market. SENAI stands for National Service for Industrial Learning (Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial). Technical courses are offered in the blended learning mode where face-to-face meetings happen at regional centers. SENAI provides printed and online materials and courses are free of charge, offered at all national territory.
6. "SEBRAE (Brazilian Support Service to Micro and Small Businesses) offers about 15 courses online and free of charge to anyone wishing to learn more about business management and entrepreneurship. The courses are tutored on a virtual learning environment (platform WebAula), and the learners receive a course certificate on completion. The courses are offered free of charge and are open to anyone to study them. Users only need to have access to the Internet and commit to a certain number of study hours over a given period of time so that they can complete the syllabus. Some of the courses offered by SEBRAE are: Individual Entrepreneurship, Quality Management, Internet for Small Business and Innovation Management". (Source: Santos, A.I. (2011) Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State of the Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation. UNESCO- IIET: Moscow)
7. SESI Serviço Social da Indústria (Social Services of the Industry)has a number of short open courses on different subject areas, ranging from music and arts to environment and law. They are open to all, usually at an affordable price and some of them are free of charge. These courses can be taken by anyone and they do not require any previous certificate or qualification. Examples of courses are Healthy Eating, Relaxation, Vocal health, Music and Recruiting Techniques. SESI Paraná in particular has won an e-learning award amongst other 25 e-learning institutions in Brazil for 'best practice' in 2011.

Chile

Centro Virtual de Actualización y Desarrollo del Diseño (CEVADD) is one of a number of examples of private organisations offering virtual courses in vocational areas - this one covers design and illustration of womens' fashion.

Colombia

There have been major developments in virtual programmes for vocational training since 2007, particularly at

1. SENA
2. CESDE
3. INCAP - see separate entries for these.