Submitted
Last Updated September 21, 2021
2021 TPrize Challenge
Teaching Teachers
Team Leader
Luis Fernando Pantoja Oroza
Solution Overview
Solution Name:
Teaching Teachers
One-line solution summary:
We help rural teachers to include technology in their classrooms and close the gap with the rest of the schools
Pitch your solution.
We help teachers be more effective and efficient when teaching their classes. We will train them to engage students while using technology and open educational resources to have updated material to share with their classes.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
We help teachers be more effective and efficient when teaching their classes. We will train them to engage students while using technology and open educational resources to have updated material to share with their classes.
What is your solution?
We will train teachers from the municipality of Santiago de Machaca in La Paz - Bolivia to use the available technology to their advantage and improve their educational skills through flipped classroom and gamification
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
The solution favors the educational sector of the municipality. Teachers, students and parents. They are around 5,000 inhabitants. It will work together with the municipal government. This project arises through the analysis of the needs of the population, among which is to improve educational practices. Teachers are required by government agencies to provide results, and yet they do not have the soft or hard conditions to achieve it. Neither supplies nor training. Implementing the methodologies of flipped class and gamification through technology can improve learning processes and get teachers to have better educational results for their students
Which dimension of the TPrize Challenge does your solution most closely address?
- Support teachers and educational institutions with teaching and learning methodologies, tools, and resources that help develop future skills for students
Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the TPrize Challenge.
The TPrize Challenge seeks innovation. We precisely want to innovate by improving the skills of teachers in a rural municipality in Bolivia.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
La Paz, Bolivia
What is your solution’s stage of development?
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community.
Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.
Santiago de Machaca - 5.000 habitantes
Santiago de Machaca is a very poor community within the rural area of Bolivia. Improving your educational practices will help strengthen the community
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Luis Fernando Pantoja, President NGO Mentor
More About Your Solution
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
https://www.facebook.com/MentorONG
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
- A new application of an existing technology
What makes your solution innovative?
We have experience training instructors around the world, and giving them the tools that they need to transform their classrooms. We use free technology and Open Educational Resources that allow teachers to gamify their classrooms, flip it and put all cellphones in the room at the service of the class.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Using the technology that we already have we can teach and model instructors how to find curate and use Open Educational Resources and how to use free technology to gamify their classrooms
Provide evidence that this technology works. Please cite your sources.
The flipped classroom and gamification are methodologies that have emerged this last year, of which there is a lot of literature and practice
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
- Ancestral Technology & Practices
- Audiovisual Media
- Manufacturing Technology
Does this technology introduce any risks? How are you addressing or mitigating these risks in your solution?
Since the technology used is low-tech, there are not too many risks in its application. In any case, a possible risk would be that some of the teachers do not have access to a cell phone, which could be mitigated with the provision of one.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
- Rural
- Poor
In which countries do you currently operate?
- Bolivia
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
- Bolivia
- Dominican Republic
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
We start with 300 students and about 20 teachers in a year. In 5 years it can cover more municipalities and reach around 20,000 people. Within the same municipality, this can benefit another 300 people and provide inputs for a new generation of teachers in the municipality
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and -- importantly -- how will you achieve them?
For the following year, we want to train at least 1,000 teachers from the municipalities within the Murillo Province of the Department of La Paz in Bolivia. The training will be oriented in 3 specific areas: gamification methodologies, inverted class and technologies; Emotional Intelligence; Financial intelligence.
In 5 years we want to cover the training of teachers from the entire rural area of the Department of La Paz and the Department of Santa Cruz. We are talking about 20,000 teachers
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
- Number of trained teachers
- Number of students inherent to the teacher
- School performance
- Number of urban municipalities trained
- Number of rural municipalities trained
- Number of schools participating in the project
About Your Team
What type of organization is your solution team?
- Nonprofit
How many people work on your solution team?
We are 5 people working at NGO Mentor in Bolivia. We have two advisors who are a Lecturer in Economics from a liberal art college in Boston and a Professor of. from Spain. We also have 3 instructors.
How long have you been working on your solution?
Since the pandemic started
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
We are an organization that in one year has trained around 30,000 teachers from 28 different countries in Latin America and Spain. We have contact with organizations and professionals from Latin America, the US and Spain.
The organization arose as a result of the analysis of the problems of education in Bolivia
What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team?
Our staff is made up of people from different countries and professions. We have certified experience in training and also in project development
Your Business Model & Partnerships
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
- Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)
Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities
Why are you applying to the 2021 TPrize Challenge?
Bolivia is the worst ranked country in education in all of Latin America. The pandemic has dramatically demonstrated that teachers are neither prepared nor trained to implement new methodologies in their students. We are confident that with this contribution, we can help improve teacher practices.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
- Human Capital (e.g. sourcing talent, board development, etc.)
- Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)
- Technology (e.g. software or hardware, web development/design, data analysis, etc.)
Please explain in more detail here.
The most important part is the financial one. With grants and donations we can carry out all our projects.
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
National Goverment: Support from de Education Secretary
Solution Team:
Luis Fernando Pantoja Oroza