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Brazil/OER
This is the subpage version of the Brazil OER report
For the key report on OER in Brazil see dos Santos, Andreia Inamorato (2012), Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, 2012, http://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214695
and see the report for POERUP's sister project VISCED by the same author - http://www.virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Brazil
Policies Survey notes:
- Brazil has a number of OER initiatives:
- • The Bank for International Educational Objects (BIOE) stores open access objects produced by the Ministry and by partners around the world. Most of them are released under Creative Commons licences.
- • Portal do Professor allows teachers to create and suggest content that can be freely accessed and distributed. There are incentives for that content to be reprinted by other teachers and republished in the portal as new content.
- • TV Escola creates and licenses free and open multimedia material directed at teachers and students, although it is not possible to edit these materials.
- • Condigital focuses on the production of digital content for secondary schools. Content is licensed under the Creative Commons as required by Public Notice, which permits editing, translation and distribution. The Ministry has a distribution policy that benefits both private and public systems as the content is stored on open platforms.
- Brazil notes that, in relation to its policy on CC licensing, whilst CC licensing is required in the production of content funded by the Ministry, this is not yet “official.”
- Brazil notes that federal units have legal autonomy to formulate their programmes and strategies for OER.
OER in Brazil: Map
Total number of Open Education Initiatives in Brazil on Thursday, 16 May 2024 at 06:20 = 6 , of which:
- 0 are MOOC
- 6 are OER
Initiatives per million = 0.03125
Overview
Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil), is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometers. It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the overseas department of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until its independence in 1822. Initially independent as the Brazilian Empire, the country has been a republic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature; now called Congress, dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified. Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
Brazil is the world's tenth largest economy at market exchange rates and the ninth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms have given the country new international projection. It is a founding member of the United Nations and the Union of South American Nations. A predominantly Roman Catholic, Portuguese-speaking, and multiethnic society, Brazil is also home to a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.
The population of Brazil is just over 192,000,000.
The capital of Brazil is Brasília.
Further information
For further general information see Wikipedia:Brazil/OER.
Education in Brazil/OER
For a general description of education in Brazil/OER see Education:Brazil/OER.
e-learning
For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Brazil/OER.
Quality procedures
Internet in Brazil/OER
The socio-economic inequities in Brazil strongly contribute to prevent a significant portion of country population to benefit from the access to modern information technologies. According to studies, (Waisenfisz, 2007) more than 31 million people had internet access in Brazil in 2005. However, this represents only 17,2% of Brazilian population. These results put Brazil in the 76° position among the 193 surveyed countries. In Latin America its rank is behind Chile (28,9%), Costa Rica (21,3%), Uruguai (20,6%), and Argentina (17,8%). The inequity of access among Brazilian regions and groups of people are even more dramatic. State of Alagoas rates were of 7,6%, while the Federal District presented 41,2%. The low-income group presented 0,5% access rate, in opposition to the higher income group with 77% access rate. (1)
Internet in Education
Through education, social exclusion is to be reduced in order to avoid social inequality. To achieve this, the Brazilian Ministry of Education proposes a set of development programs in different but integrated directions. Some of these programs are: equipping schools with necessary structure to use computers and internet connection; enhancing teacher education and training stressing the development of information technology skills; providing open and distance learning opportunities; and offering free and quality digital learning resources. In order to take advantage from the information technologies individuals need to have access to information and knowledge production. However, in order to have access, it’s necessary to know how to use these new technologies. The currently policies for education sector deal not only with the increasing of digital access but also with the learning skills required to use and make the most of information technologies. The National Program for informatics in Education – Proinfo plan for the next three years consists of supplying 138.405 public schools in Brazil with computer labs and broadband internet connection, and offering training on educational technology for K-12 teachers of all parts of the country. Proinfo is a result of a partnership among the federal government, states and cities to equip schools with computers. A variety of digital content is brought to school with the new computers, such as: educational videos, multimedia learning objects, hypertexts, and opens source software. (1)
There has been limited inclusion of ICT in education in initial teacher education in Latin and this reflects the late and uneven diffusion of these technologies in the region. ICTs have been slow to acquire prominent status in Latin American economy and society, although there has been more enthusiasm in Brazilian universities. In schools, the Um laptop por Criança (One Laptop per Child) initiative offers promise (this project involves Argentina and Uruguay as well), but the results of ICT policies in schools are difficult to assess, since there is a lack of methodology, specific indicators, and systematic and reliable data are missing.The research presented on the ICT report reveals that although a number of projects for the use of technologies in education have been implemented over the past two decades, the use of ICTs in the classrooms is still not fully integrated to the day-to-day activities of the schools nor the syllabi. Data from the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (ICT Education Report 2010) suggests that each public school has on average 23 computers, but only about 18 of those are actually installed and in use due to maintenance reasons. There is an average of 800 students per public school and broadband is present in 87% of schools which have an Internet connection. The conservative and traditional approach to schooling, coupled with lack of recognition of the affordances of technology-enhanced education, will continue to hold back development in schools and colleges. Even so, Brazilian HE is strong and its universities are prominently represented in international ratings, such that they are leading in the LA region. In time, the deployment of ICTs in universities will filter into teacher training and then into schools. In conclusion, the digital divide exists in two dimensions: first – the under-provision of ICTs and connectivity, and second – the lack of understanding of the benefits of technological exploitation in education. It is reasonable, however, to predict that Web 2.0, the ‘Cloud’ and social networking will hasten the uptake of new technologies and rich media in teaching and learning. (1)
Copyright law in Brazil/OER
Copyright law in Education
OER Initiatives in Brazil/OER
For a general reference on OER in Brazil see the UNESCO report:
- Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation - http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/3214695.pdf
National OER initiatives
Digital Educational Repositories - One of the first initiatives in Brazil to provide free digital learning material through the web was the Interactive Virtual Education Network - RIVED, a Ministry of Education project. And this was the pioneer attempt in the country to use learning object concept and open standards to produce and publish digital material (Nascimento, 2003). RIVED learning objects consist of problem-based multimedia interactive activities, covering diverse topics, mostly aimed for high school level. The learning objects are stored in a repository, and users can find them by using a search engine. When users access the search results the full description of the materials are available, and also a teacher’s guide. An important feature for assessment and recommendation is implemented for those who access the resources. RIVED sponsors multidisciplinary teams at universities for research and production of learning objects. Consequently, the project major benefit is the development of a culture of digital learning resources production for free dissemination and reuse in the Brazilian universities. While the teams support the creation of resources to feed the repository, they also help to enrich the pre-service teachers training by having them as team members. The Portal of Public Domain is another repository MEC implemented to provide anyone the free access to literature, academic papers, audio and video files, among others. Many videos produced by TV School are stored in this repository and available for use. Although the web has a great amount of content, it is time consuming for a teacher to search everywhere for published resources. And many educators go into MEC web address hoping to find easily the learning material, but they have to navigate in different pages looking for what they need. Considering all these, the idea of a major gateway for locating and using varied format of learning objects was the natural progress. Therefore, a new project has been developed to bring together, in the same repository, the whole digital educational resources produced or sponsored by MEC, besides all the other ones identified in Brazil and other countries, intended for the sharing and reusing. The repository, named International Bank of Learning Objects, is to support the Teacher’s Portal, where teachers will find examples of how to use the digital resources, will have access to open source software, and will be able to assess and know other people opinions about each learning object. The public learning resources will support K-12, vocational and higher education in diverse knowledge fields. (1)
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. (1) Website: http://www.bemrecebercopa.com.br/
"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". (2) Santos, A.I. (2011) Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State of the Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation. UNESCO- IIET: Moscow
SESI (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. (1)
Fundação de Fátima (Foundation of Fatima) is a non-profit organization sited in Sao Paulo, Brazil that delivers educational broadcasting services. The Foundation's main activities are: - the development of technology that is auxiliary and complementary to traditional learning; - the setting up and the supply of educational, informative, cultural and recreational programs, headed to civic, moral and cultural training, through the radio and the TV or other mass media; - the distribution of developed resources and produced programs, to different mass media, aimed to blended learning across the board (3)
Regional OER initiatives
Institutional OER initiatives
References
1. ReVica/VISCED page for Brazil (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Brazil)
2. Santos, A.I. (2011) Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State of the Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation. UNESCO- IIET: Moscow
3. ReVica/VISCED page for Fundação de Fátima (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Fundação_de_Fátima)
Reports
- dos Santos, Andreia Inamorato (2012), Open Educational Resources in Brazil: State-of-the-Art, Challenges and Prospects for Development and Innovation, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, 2012, http://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214695