Bridging the Digital Divide – Educacion Gratuita en Linea (EGL)

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Bridging the Digital Divide – Educacion Gratuita en Linea (EGL)

Midterm – Johnstone – October 19, 2010

In recent years, the Dominican Republic (D.R.) has attempted to modernize its education system through a series of overhauling initiatives, among them the Plan Decenal or Ten Years Plan, which lasted from 1992-2002. Through this plan, the country promoted the modernization of the educational structure, the introduction of new technologies, the promotion of literacy, the strengthening of vocational education, an increased investment in education, and increased community involvement (OECD, p. 104). Implicit in these reforms was the belief that integration into the world economy will benefit the D.R. and contribute to its development.

The Plan Decenal (1992-2002) reforms yielded various positive results, for example, the number of children between 6 and 17 years old attending school increased from 71.3% in 1991 to 86.4% in 2002 (OECD, 2008). In addition, D.R. has made significant inroads in meeting the UNESCO’s “Education For All” goals by increasing access to primary education as well as promoting an increase in the literacy rate from 70% in 1990, 78.5% in 2000, and 81.6% in 2008 (World Bank, 2010). However, the quality of public education continues to be limited in comparison to other countries in the region, and several indicators remain below expectations.

By 2006, the average secondary enrollment rate for Latin America and the Caribbean was 87.2%, while in the D.R. enrollment was only at 58.7%. The literacy rate remains below the world average of 88.2% and total public education spending (% GDP) is low, at a level of 2.2% during 2007, compared to a world average of 4.6% in 2006 (World Bank, 2010). In addition, according to a 2001 study by the Regional Education Project for Latin America and the Caribbean (PREALC), urban children in the D.R. performed the worst in an assessment of education of all of Latin America, and rural children performed only better than children in Bolivia and Peru, where Spanish is to many children a second language (Murray, 2005).

The D.R. is attempting to bridge the gap between public, low tuition private, and high tuition private schools and increase the overall quality of the education system through the use of ICT. By focusing on both English and ICT skills, EGL hopes to both diminish the digital divide, and increase the job opportunities for graduates in the software engineering or tourism industries.

Explanation of Intervention

Since 2004, INDOTEL, the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications, has promoted a growing use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) across the D.R., as well as invested in increasing broadband access and establishing community computer labs across the country (INDOTEL, 2010). Encouraged by the government’s interest in modernizing the education system, EGL believes that its initiative will be well received by the general population.

If successful, EGL hopes to attract private investors and establish a growing sustainable development project. With one million dollars, EGL will provide six different K-12 schools across the country with computer labs and laptops for every child. It will also establish “Hole-in-the-Wall” computer kiosks at various places across the country, promote competitions between students across different schools where computers will be awarded to high performing students, and establish an online educational system which, through a partnership with Google and Facebook. This cooperation will provide educational software for students, the ability to create teacher regulated social networks, an email account, and other educational materials. EGL will also invest on a number of mobile learning applications. A description of the operating costs and how the budget will be allocated is included on Table 1 at the end of the document.

The project focuses on six K-12 schools: four public schools and two low income private schools. These schools have around 450 students or 35 students per class. One of the public schools and the low income private school are both located in Santo Domingo. The funds allocated for the ICT installation will go toward furnishing computer labs in each school. Teacher technology training in general computer literacy and the Livemocha online language learning program will accompany the installation. “Hole-in-the-wall” computer kiosks will be placed in highly transited areas such as playgrounds and markets. Each kiosk will feature two physically protected, easy to use, Internet-connected computers with weather proof hardware that anyone can approach and learn to use. The high performing student competition will award the best language and math students of each gender in 10 schools (limited to public and low tuition private schools) with a laptop computer to enhance their language or math learning capabilities and overall education. With a cell phone use rate of 0.91 cellular phones per person in the D.R., by providing freely accessible language applications through cell phones, EGL hopes to increase access to educational material to the least developed areas of the country (INDOTEL, 2010). The online software and programs will focus on English, Math, and Computer literacy skills.

Support for Selection

While the impact of ICT in learning outcomes continues to be debated, their impact on society has been widespread and has increased rapidly over the years (Trucano, 2008). Children today grow up in an environment where televisions and cellular phones are common household items, in addition, while not everyone has access to a computer or the Internet, most people are aware of the ability to connect with people instantaneously across the world. In the D.R., Internet use has rapidly expanded from 183.687 Internet accounts on 2006 to 508.603 Internet accounts by June 2010 (INDOTEL, 2010). Based on the average users per Internet connection, INDOTEL believes that 33% or 3,214,371 Dominicans had access to the Internet by June 2010.

To fully benefit from the growing use of Internet in the D.R., EGL will promote the implementation of a curriculum that emphasizes computer literacy, (Spanish/English) language skills, programming, and innovation. EGL hopes to encourage Dominicans to develop their own software through freely available programming software such as Python.

EGL will promote the use of Livemocha (www.livemocha.com) for language learning activities (emphasizing English lessons). Livemocha is an online language learning tool that offers both free and paid courses in 35 languages with over 6 million members from over 200 countries worldwide. (Livemocha, 2010) The learning occurs through activities similar to those in Rosetta Stone emphasizing reading, listening and writing and eventually speaking. The students also serve as teachers in the language learning community as the course requires you to review and submit corrections to another member learning your native language.

Fluency in English would greatly enhance the economic prospects for its population, including future employees in the tourism industry, which currently represents the largest sector of the Dominican economy. The service industry, including tourism, currently accounts for over 66% the D.R.’s GDP (World Bank, 2010). The largest group of tourists who visited the D.R. in 2009 spoke English. United States and Canadian citizens accounted for 45% of all tourists visiting the D.R. according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) (CTO, 2010). Seven hundred thousand yearly tourists from the U.S bring 3,400 billion dollars to the Dominican economy. Based on the quantity of tourists coming from Canada and the U.S., not to mention that many English speaking European tourists, bilingual skills are a very valuable commodity.

Yet, as important as promoting fluency in English, it is also important for the D.R. to increase pride towards its cultural heritage and its language. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, yet Latin American countries are not known for software development or technological innovations, and most software on the Internet is translated into Spanish rather than developed in a Spanish speaking country.

EGL will attempt to reduce this trend, by promoting the development and increasing the use of computer software in Spanish, an objective shared by the government of the D.R. (López Valerio, 2010) In order to accomplish this goal, the education system needs to increase programs in computer literacy and technological advancements in schools.

To increase the appeal and general support for the program, EGL will not only invest in marketing, but also on highly visible and successful “hole-in-the-wall” computers. Sugata Mitra in India and other initiatives across the world have proven the effectiveness of “hole-in-the-wall” technology in helping disadvantaged students to learn informally. These kiosks help to improve regular literacy and technological literacy (Madhusudan, 2002). By placing these kiosks in high traffic areas in Santo Domingo, the program will increase its visibility and also reach a population of children that might not otherwise learn to navigate modern technology.

EGL will also promote the use of learning software through mobile technology. One of the greatest technological successes of the D.R. in recent years has been the growth of the cellular phone industry to a rate of 0.91 cellular phones per person. Yet this rate is misleading since people in Santo Domingo (an urban area) have an average of 202 cellular phones per 100 people and in the province of Bahurocu (a rural area) there are only 12.8 cellular phones per 100 people, despite the uneven distribution, the use of cellular phones across the country has quickly expanded from 4.6 million on 2006 to 8.9 million by June 2010 (Vargas, 2007; INDOTEL, 2010). The growing use of cellular phone in most developing countries in not unique, and it has been a major focus of Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) efforts.

To promote the use of ICT in both private and public schools, and in focusing the program’s efforts to reduce the quality gap between public and private schools, EGL will install ICT labs at six different schools, including providing a laptop for every child. Four public schools and two low tuition private schools will receive these technologies. Michael Coulson wrote in a study (in which the D.R. was included) on the quality of private versus public education worldwide that “private schools clearly out-perform state-run schools… across a host of outcomes” such as achievement, efficiency, and parental satisfaction (Coulson, 2009). EGL hopes to aid in closing the gap between private and public schools in areas such as achievement (especially in language and math), increase learning efficiency, and parental satisfaction, among others clearly delineated objectives through the adequate use of ICT at these schools. As with the other programs promoted by EGL, we are aware of the detrimental effects technology can bring to learning if not properly used, monitored, and evaluated (Trucano, 2008). EGL will use the best known practices available to reduce the detrimental effects brought by the introduction of new technologies and ICTs into classrooms.

Conclusion

Through marketing and the development of partnerships, EGL hopes to continue growing and expanding its programs to where every child and young adult in the D.R. has access to educational materials through information and communication technologies. ICT and English language skills will improve the financial outlook of young Dominicans as they will not only be able to provide a greater contribution to the tourism and service industry of the country, but generate innovations through ICTs that will allow the country to diversify its economic production and increase its GNP through Dominican style development.

EGL is an avid supporter and promoter of the EFA and MDG objectives. We hope that in the near future every Dominican either through formal or non-formal education will have access to educational materials, will be able to pursue their dreams, and have an equal opportunity to develop their talents. We thank our partners for investing in this initiative. Without your help, we will be unable to provide assistance to the D.R.

Table 1: EGL (2010-2015) – Operating Costs

	Percentage	Dollar Figure
6 Schools – ICT Installation	7%	70,000
Hole in the Wall (50 units)	15%	150,000
High Performing Students	3%	30,000
Online Educ. System	15%	150,000
Curriculum Development	10%	100,000
Administrative Costs	20%	200,000
Marketing Costs	15%	150,000
Evaluation Costs	15%	150,000
Total	100%	1,000,000

References
CEPAL. (2010). CEPALSTAT | Base de Datos y Publicaciones Estadisticas. Vitacura: CEPAL. Retrieved from http://www.eclac.org/estadisticas/
CIA. (2010). The World Factbook. Washington D.C.: CIA. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/dr.html
Coulson, Michael J. (2009) Comparing Public, Private, and Market Schools: The Internation Evidence. Journal of School Choice 3:31-54. doi: 10.1080/15582150902805016
CTO. (2010) Caribbean Tourism Organization Latest Statistics 2009. Barbados: CTO. Retrieved from http://www.onecaribbean.org/statistics/2009stats/default.aspx
Gajardo, M. (2008) Education for All Global Monitoring Report: Dominican Republic –
Country Case Study. New York: UNESCO.
INDOTEL. (2010) Gráficos Indicadores Estadísticos De Telefonía E Internet Al 30 De Junio De 2010. Santo Domingo: INDOTEL. Retrieved fromh ttp://www.indotel.gob.do/centro-de-documentacion/
Lopez Valerio, Mario. (2010) República Dominicana: Productor de Tecnologías, no
consumidor Resources for Open Community Knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.rock.com.do/noticias/150-republica-dominicana-productor-de-tecnologias-no-consumidor.html
Madhusudan, C.N. (2002) India’s “Hole-in-the-Wall” Key to Bridging the Digital Divide? TechKnowLogia volume 4 issue 3. Retrieved from http://www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_active_pages2/TableOfContents/main.asp?IssueNumber=17
Mota, Fausto. (2008) Plan Decenal de Educacion 2008-2018. Santo Domingo: Secretaria de Estado de Educacion
Murray, Gerald F. (2005) El Colegio y la Escuela: Antropología de la Educación en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: FondoMicro
OECD. (2008) Reviews of National Policies for Education – Dominican Republic. Paris: OECD.
Trucano, Michael. (2005) Knowledge Maps: ICT in Education. Washington, DC: infoDev / World Bank. Retrieved from http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.8.html
Vargas (2007) trabajando en los simientos para la construccion de la sociedad de informacion en la Republica Dominicana: avances en materia de acceso y conectividad. Santo Domingo: INDOTEL. Retrieved from http://www.indotel.gob.do/centro-de-documentacion/
Vargas (2008) Discurso del Dr. José Rafael Vargas, presidente del Indotel, en la reunión de inicio de gestión del período 2008-2012. Santo Domingo: INDOTEL. Retrieved from http://www.indotel.gob.do/centro-de-documentacion/
World Bank. (2010) World dataBank: Dominican Republic. Washington, DC: World Bank. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/country/dominican-republic

———–

LONGER VERSION

5104 – Midterm – Educational Program in the Dominican Republic

Bridging the Digital Divide – Educacion Gratuita en Linea (EGL)

Policy Implementation Blue Print

Objectives: To reduce the digital divide and increase English competency across all levels of Dominican education system through the implementation of a multi-tiered development program. EGL, a Dominican non-profit founded in October 2010, focuses on the promotion of “leapfrog” initiatives within the Dominican education system with the intent of increasing the diversity, long term viability, and sustainability of the Dominican Economy by providing citizens with practical and critical thinking skills that will enable them to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century.

Introduction / Setting

In recent years, the Dominican Republic has attempted to modernize its education system through a series of overhauling initiatives, among them the “Plan Decenal” or Ten Years Plan, which lasted from 1992-2002. Through this plan, the country promoted the modernization of the educational structure, the introduction of new technologies, the promotion of literacy, the strengthening of vocational education, an increased investment in education, and increased community involvement (OECD, p. 104). Implicit in these reforms was the belief that integration into the world economy will benefit the Dominican Republic and contribute to its development.

The Plan Decenal (1992-2002) was seen as a possible solution to most of the country’s educational problems and as the greatest educational reform since 1953. The Plan Decenal (1992-2002) reforms yielded various positive results, for example, the number of children between 6 and 17 years old attending school increased from 71.3% in 1991 to 86.4% in 2002 (OECD, 2008). In addition, Dominican Republic has made significant inroads in meeting the UNESCO’s “Education For All” goals by increasing access to primary education as well as promoting a steady increase in the literacy rate from 60.8% in 1980 to 70% in 1990, 78.5% in 2000, and 81.6% in 2008 (World Bank, 2010). However, despite these improvements, the quality of public education continues to be of limited in comparison to other countries in the region, and several indicators remain below expectations.

By 2006, the average enrollment rate for Latin America and the Caribbean at secondary school was 87.2%, while in the Dominican Republic enrollment was only at 58.7%. The literacy rate remains below the world average of 88.2% and total public spending on education (% of Gross Domestic Product – GDP) is low, at a level of 2.2% during 2007, compared to a world average of 4.6% in 2006 (World Bank, 2010). In addition, according to a 2001 study by the Regional Education Project for Latin America and the Caribbean (PREALC), urban children in the Dominican Republic performed the worst in an assessment of education of all of Latin America, and rural children performed only better than children in Bolivia and Peru, where Spanish is to many children a second language (Murray, 2005). Other problems in the Dominican education system include a gap in the quality of education between major cities and rural areas, where the government has had difficulties in finding teachers and developing an adequate infrastructure (Mota, 2008)

The Dominican Republic is attempting to bridge the gap between public schools, low tuition private colegios, and high tuition colegios and increase the overall quality of the education system through the use of ICT. By focusing on both English and ICT skills, EGL hopes to both diminish the digital divide, and increase the job opportunities for graduates in the software engineering or tourism industries.

Explanation of Intervention

In order to meet the challenges that continue to plague their education system, the Dominican Republic intends to increase its investment in the public education sector during the Second Plan Decenal (2008-2018) to 4.1% of the GNP by 2014 and to 6.82% of the GNP by 2018 (Mota, 2008). Since 2004, INDOTEL, the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications, has promoted a growing use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) across the island, as well as invested in increasing broadband access and establishing community computer labs in all the municipalities across the country (INDOTEL, 2010). Encouraged by the government’s interest in modernizing the education system, EGL believes that its initiative will be well received by the general Dominican population.

If successful, EGL hopes to attract private investors and establish a growing sustainable development project. With original funds of 1 million dollars, EGL will provide six different K-12 schools across the country with computer labs and laptops for every child. It will also establish “Hole-in-the-Wall” computer kiosks at various places across the country, promote competitions between students across different schools where computers will be awarded to high performing students, and establish an online educational system which, through a partnership with Google and Facebook. This cooperation will provide educational software for students, the ability to create teacher regulated social networks, an email account, and other educational materials. EGL will also invest on a number of mobile learning applications. A description of the operating costs and how the budget will be allocated is included below.

EGL (2010-2015) – Operating Costs

	Percentage	Dollar Figure
6 Schools – ICT Installation	7%	70,000
Hole in the Wall (50 units)	15%	150,000
High Performing Students	3%	30,000
Online Educ. System	15%	150,000
Curriculum Development	10%	100,000
Administrative Costs	20%	200,000
Marketing Costs	15%	150,000
Evaluation Costs	15%	150,000
Total	100%	1,000,000

“Hole-in-the-wall” computer kiosks will be placed in highly transited areas such as playgrounds and markets. Each kiosk will feature two physically protected, easy to use, Internet-connected computers with weather proof hardware that anyone can approach and learn to use.

The High Performing student competition will award the best language and math students of each gender in 10 schools (limited to public and low tuition private schools) with a laptop computer to enhance their language or math learning capabilities and overall education.

By partnering with both Facebook and Google, EGL will benefit from continued free software updates which will allow the program to remain modern and attractive to its users. EGL will provide for the translations, appropriate content which emphasizes local applicability and context. These programs will be accessible to any student in the country and hope to establish a learning social network and online educational community. This will also permit communication between schools, teachers, and students.

EGL will invest significant resources on appropriate marketing as it will attempt to increase the reach of its program, the national support for its initiatives, and develop ties with private businesses in an attempt to be economically self-sufficient. It will also rely heavily on local volunteers. With a cell phone use rate of 0.91 cellular phones per person in the Dominican Republic, by providing freely accessible language applications through cell phones, EGL hopes to increase access to educational material to the least developed areas of the country (INDOTEL, 2010). The online software and programs will focus on English learning skills, Math skills, and Computer literacy skills.

Support for Selection

While the impact of ICT in learning outcomes continues to be debated, their impact on society has been widespread and has increased rapidly over the years (Trucano, 2008). Children today grow up in an environment where televisions and cellular phones are common household items, in addition, while not everyone has access to a computer or the Internet, most people are aware of their influence and how they can be used to connect people instantaneously across the world. In the Dominican Republic, Internet use has rapidly expanded in recent years from 183.687 Internet accounts on 2006 to 508.603 Internet accounts by June 2010 (INDOTEL, 2010). Based on the average users per Internet connection, INDOTEL believes that 33% of Dominicans or 3,214,371 Dominicans had access to the Internet by June 2010.

Unfortunately, despite the rapid expansion of Internet use, the majority of the population continues to lack access to this valuable resource. The high cost of establishing the infrastructure, as well as the costs of the hardware and software, limits the extent to which developing countries can effectively reduce the digital divide. ICTs are updated regularly, software is regularly updated and hardware quickly devalues and becomes obsolete. The recurring energy costs of a technology lab as well as the costs to repair the equipment require a continuous investment by education ministries and schools. Through the implementation of a curriculum that emphasizes computer literacy, bilingual language skills (Spanish / English), programming and innovation, EGL hopes to encourage children (and adults) to develop their own software. Among the tools that will be available online for everyone to use will be free programming software such as Python. The online education system website will include tutorials and encourage the formation of social groups united with the objective of practicing their programming skills, troubleshooting, and sharing ideas.

By promoting bilingual education programs and English fluency, individuals will be able to benefit from a large among of educational material already available freely on the Internet, such as OpenCourseWare materials from the MIT and other major institutions via ITunes U, and YouTube EDU. EGL plans to promote the use of these resources as well as promote their continued translation of OpenCourseWare into Spanish through Universia.

Within their program and curriculum, the ICT labs and other EGL initiatives will promote the use of Livemocha (www.livemocha.com). Livemocha is an online language learning tool that offers both free and paid courses in 35 languages with over 6 million members from over 200 countries worldwide. (Livemocha, 2010) The learning occurs through activities similar to those in Rosetta Stone emphasizing reading, listening and writing and eventually speaking. The students also serve as teachers in the language learning community as the course requires you to review and submit corrections to another member learning your native language (or another language in which you are fluent).

This reciprocal learning community fosters motivation in a real-life like setting which makes this program very effective and approachable to young students. Other advantages of this program are the cost effectiveness, quick and simple set up, and that it is accessible from any computer with Internet hook-up. The only drawback is that to be able to fully participate in the courses, computers with microphones and good speakers are crucial for learning to effectively speak the new language. By promoting the use of Livemocha, EGL program would lower the costs of the computer software needed to run the equipment. Among other free software that would be encouraged will be OpenOffice, Google Docs, Linux (Edubuntu, Fedora), Apache Web Servers, Moodle, as well as a large number of freely available apps through different freeware distributors. EGL will encourage and promote the use of freeware free of spyware or adware and will offer links and descriptions of the most reliable free programs through its website. EGL will also attempt to partners with other major reliable software distributors (like Microsoft) with the hopes of obtaining software at reduce prices for its students.

Language learning programs such as Livemocha will be particularly emphasized in the curriculum as fluency in English would greatly enhance the economic prospects for its population, including future employees in the tourism industry, which currently represents the largest sector of the Dominican economy. The service industry, including tourism, currently accounts for over 66% of its GDP (World Bank, 2010). The largest group of tourists who visited the Dominican Republic on 2009 were English speaking. Grouped together, American and Canadian citizens accounted for 45% of all tourists visiting the island according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) (CTO, 2010). seven hundred thousand yearly tourists from the U.S bring 3,400 billion dollars to the Dominican Economy. Based on the quantity of tourists coming from Canada and the U.S., not to mention that many European tourists also speak English makes English speaking skills a very valuable commodity. In addition, since its independence, the Dominican Republic has had a strong economic relationship with the United States. This strong relationship continues to this day. The Dominican Republic currently imports 42.79% and exports 54.08% of its goods from the United States. These factors, in addition to being roughly 800 miles from Miami, increase the need for students to be both fluent in English and Spanish.

Yet, as important as promoting fluency in English, it is also importance for the Dominican Republic to increase pride towards its cultural heritage and its language. Spanish is the second most spoken language (as a primary language) in the world, yet Latin American countries are not known for their software development or technological innovations, and most software on the Internet is translated into Spanish rather than being developed in a Spanish speaking country.

EGL will attempt to reduce this trend, by promoting the development and increasing the use of computer software in Spanish, an objective shared by the government of the Dominican Republic (López Valerio, 2010) In order to accomplish this goal, the education system needs to increase their programs in computer literacy and technological advancements in schools.

In a highly globalized world, local cultures can be eroded through the influence of foreign advertisement and media. EGL hopes through its programs and advertisements to promote both the strengthening of local roots and the pride of being Quisqueya, while at the same time being aware of the changes that are taking place in the world and avoid being left behind. To reduce the digital divide, it is important for countries to increase the resources allocated to technological research and development. EGL supports the current efforts of INDOTEL in providing broadband Internet access to every household in the country (Vargas, 2008).

To increase the appeal and general support for the program, EGL will not only invest in marketing, but also on highly visible and successful “hole-in-the-wall” computers. Sugata Mitra in India and other initiatives across the world have proven the effectiveness of hole-in-the-wall technology in helping disadvantaged students to learn informally. These kiosks help to improve regular literacy and technological literacy (Madhusudan, 2002). By placing these kiosks in high traffic areas in Santo Domingo, the program will increase its visibility and also reach a population of children that might not otherwise have the chance to use a computer and learn to navigate modern technology.

EGL will also promote the use of learning software through mobile technology. One of the greatest technological successes of the Dominican Republic in recent years has been the growth of the cellular phone industry to a rate of 0.91 cellular phones per person. While this rate is misleading since people in Santo Domingo have an average of 202 cellular phones per 100 people and in the province of Bahurocu there are only 12.8 cellular phones per 100 people, despite the uneven distribution, the use of cellular phones across the country has quickly expanded from 4.6 million on 2006 to 8.9 million by June 2010 (Vargas, 2007; INDOTEL, 2010). The growing use of cellular phone in developing countries in not unique, and it has been a major focus of Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) efforts. As cellular phone technology quickly improves and mobile applications increase their capabilities, mobile learning will increasingly be a tool for informal education.

Among its other objectives, EGL supports the Dominican Government efforts to install ICT centers for students with disabilities. EGL will aid these efforts by promoting the development of ICT applications for students with physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, developmental impairments. We are fully committed to the idea that every child deserves the opportunity for a quality education.

To promote the use of ICT in both private and public schools, and in focusing the program’s efforts to reduce the quality gap between public and private schools, EGL will install ICT labs at six different schools, including providing a laptop for every child. Four public schools and two low tuition private schools will receive these technologies. Michael Coulson wrote in a study (in which the Dominican Republic was included) on the quality of private versus public education worldwide that “private schools clearly out-perform state-run schools… across a host of outcomes” such as achievement, efficiency, and parental satisfaction (Coulson, 2009). EGL hopes to aid in closing the gap between private and public schools in areas such as achievement (especially in language and math), increase learning efficiency, and parental satisfaction with the schools, among others clearly delineated objectives through the adequate use of ICT at these schools. As with the other programs promoted by EGL, we are aware of the detrimental effects technology can bring to learning if not properly used, monitored, and evaluated (Trucano, 2008). EGL will use the best known practices available to reduce the detrimental effects brought by the introduction of new technologies and ICTs into classrooms.

Conclusion

Through marketing and the development of partnerships, EGL hopes to continue growing and expanding its programs to where every child and young adult in the Dominican Republic has access to educational materials through information and communication technologies. ICT and English language skills will improve the financial outlook of young Dominicans as they will not only be able to provide a greater contribution to the Tourism and service industry of the country, but generate innovations through ICTs that will allow the country to diversify its economic production and increase its GNP through a Dominican styled development.