University project:

The marginalized neighborhood goes to University

EXPERIENCES IN THE FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

AUTHORS: B.S. F. Javier Diaz, B.S. Viviana Harari, B.S. Ivana Harari

UNLP briefing

Created in 1897, National since 1905. Since the creation integrated scientific research groups:

• Natural Science Museum • Santa Catalina Experimental Farm• Astronomical Observatory

UNLP numbers (www.unlp.edu.ar)

• Over 100.000 university students• Over 150 undergraduate programmes• Over 220 postgraduate programmes

• 17 Faculties

Motivations

The preamble to the statute of the National University of La Plata says:► … “The UNLP, as a free public institution of higher

education, is offered, open and inclusive, for society and establishes as a main objective promoting access to its classrooms to the entire Argentine people and bringing every corner of the country the fruits of their labor”…“

► … “Inspired in reformist principles, ensuring complete academic freedom, without discrimination, limitations or impositions...will establish policies designed to facilitate the entry, permanence and graduation of the most vulnerable sectors of society”...

Some studies

Unfortunately, surveys on educational reality of the country indicate that most of the most vulnerable and needy in our society fail to access higher education. The report of the Permanent Household Survey (EPH) of the INDEC (National Institute of Statistics and Census), states:► Among the 20% of households with the highest incomes,

43% of the young people assist to the university while less than 5% do not study or work, or are seeking work.

► In contrast, among the 20% of the poorest households, only 8% assist to the university while 30% do not study or work, or are looking for work.

The Project "The neighborhood goes to the University" ► This project by the Faculty of Informatics was accepted

from the University Volunteer Projects of the Ministry of National Education. It was accredited and selected for subsidy, for its full development throughout 2013.

► It aims to promote access to University in the low-income population. To incorporate the idea of the University as an alternative training for a better future for them and their enviroment.

► The recipients are more than 150 children, youths and adults from low-income sectors of the suburbs of La Plata, attending more than 10 nonprofit civil associations such as neighborhood soup kitchens, public libraries, and foundations, among others.

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Project Background

► The project “The neighborhood goes to the University” is framed in the “Computer Literacy Project”, which has been in force for six years teaching ITC to disadvantaged sectors of society.

► “Edu-RAEE” is another social outreach project where it has been working on environmental and social awareness and the reuse, repair and recovery of WEEE -Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment-, since 2009.

► In 2010, “Edu-RAEE Project” and “Computer Literacy Project” were successfully merged, which resulted in the donation of the reconditioned computing equipment to the training locations, providing with both the computing training and the proper resources.

Project Stages

The development of the project consisted in: ► Stage 1: Investigation on the image those sectors have of

the university, inquire as to what they know and what they do not know about it.

► Stage 2: Approach process of these groups to the university environment. Visits to the different University academic units, and the Dean Office, will be gradually organized.

► Stage 3: Documentation and Processing of the Information gathered and the knowledge adquired.They have to design a product or material in which they need to use technology.

Project Stages

► Stage 4: Productions Validation.To achieve a good result, they will visit the Faculty of Journalism and Visual Design, where teachers will instruct the group on the best way to "communicate" their research.

► Stage 5: Productions Development. Implementation of the chosen product or material.

► Stage 6: Presentation of the final product in their respective environments (social eaters, neighborhood, school) to tell them what they have investigated, and in the closing day of the project, in the Faculty of informatics.

Stage 1: Investigation

This stage is the focus of the paper.► The objective of this

research was to inquire what they know about the University, its careers, and if they considered it an area for further study.

► They were:– 110 children aged 10 to14 – 50 youngsters aged 15 to 18.

► The surveys were developedat the end of the academic year 2012.

Stage 1: Investigation

The results of the evaluation done:

Stage 1: Investigation

Other results:

Stage 1: Investigation

This research throw some important results:► 60 children and 27 youngsters do not know the careers in

the University. ► 87 children and 36 youngsters do not know any

friends/relatives who study at University.► So, they would be the first ones of their families to enter

the university system. ► 16 children say they plan to continue studying in the

University but to learn to be a cop, which is not taught in this area.

► In adolescence, there are several obstacles which make admission to the University a very difficult alternative.

Stage 1: Investigation

Others numbers:► Although 75 children and 34 youngsters acknowledge

and believe that the study may help to get a better job, only 42 children and 3 youngsters plan to study at the University.

► Although 71 children and 33 young people indicate that they know the UNLP, many do not know anything about it, the number of respondents who know about scholarships, crafts, or that it is public and free is very low.

Conclusions

The project "The neighborhood goes to the university" means a big challenge:► It involves more than 150 children and youth from 10 civil

associations.► It identifies distinct processes with dissimilar complexities:

– a stage of organizing meetings which implies community mobilization to different places of the University;

– a creative process which should encourage students to gather information, understanding and treating it to then use it for a final product and then;

– a transmission process within their own area of origin, where students must tell what they have experienced to their neighborhood, showing their productions.

Conclusions

The research presented establishes that: ► The mere fact that admission to public universities is free

and unrestricted is not enough for all to have access to it.

► There is a sector of society, the most needy, who cannot conceive in their imagery the chance to continue their studies.

► There´s not only an economic problem but also social and cultural restrictions.

► That is why we must work to reverse this situation and we have to start doing so from an early age in the case of children and youth.

Conclusions

► Finally, all this effort to revert the digital divide, generates a high level of gratification both in the recipients of these actions and in the collaborators that make them possible

► In the case of the students, their participation in these social initiatives allows them to complement the highly specific computer science learning with the formation of a responsible, ethical and committed human being.This becomes more relevant when working in a technological field within a hard science.

► The students can acquire competences for their professional and personal lives that respond to the needs of our current society and return the efforts that the population makes to sustain public education.

Some photos

► First visits to the UNLP Dean Office:

Some photos

► First visits to the UNLP Dean Office:

Some photos

► First visits to the Faculty of Informatics:

Some photos

► Developing information materials in their dining neighborhood:

Thank you very much!

B.S. F. Javier Diazjdiaz@info.unlp.edu.ar