'Operation Success' Comes
To Costa Rica To Boost
Education
(Infocom) - With the OK
and support of the
Ministry of Public
Education (MEP), which
declared it a “Program
of Educational Interest,
and economic support
from the Costa Rica-USA
Foundation, “Operation
Success” (Operacion
Exito) - a program that
employs the Internet as
a learning tool - was
launched in Costa Rica
last Aug. 26.
According to the
program’s creator,
Puerto Rican filmmaker
Noel Quiñones, Operation
Success has demonstrated
to be effective by
increasing participants’
study hours. To
participate, students
need only to register
(at no cost) and access
the review lessons
offered through its
website.
“Operation Success is an
educational tool that
will improve the
academic performance of
students and support
Costa Rica’s digital
literacy, just as it has
done in Puerto Rico,
Chile and Spain,”
Quiñones said. “Through
this program, students
feel that learning is
fun, as they replaced
the boring chalkboard
with an interactive
Internet page especially
designed for them, where
they study by playing
and have the chance of
winning attractive
prizes.”
During the first year of
the program’s
implementation in Costa
Rica, Operation Success
will reach 100 secondary
schools in San Jose’s
Great Metropolitan Area
and two in the Southern
Zone canton of Perez
Zeledon — with a target
population of 30,000
ninth and tenth grade
students and 600 math
and science teachers.
“The entire Operation
Success curriculum is
complementary to MEP
lessons, so it received
the OK from this
institution without any
kind of reservations, as
it was produced and
reviewed by teachers
with the National
Educational System,”
said Marilyn Batista,
Operation Success
director for Costa Rica.
Through the program,
students attend class
and then go review their
lessons online at home
or at Internet cafes,
accessing a dynamic
website, with
interactive educational
technologies that will
provide everything from
a video of the lesson
just learned to a
virtual teacher that
will be available to
answer students’
questions.
The cost of the program
in its first year will
be approximately
$600,000, according to
Hermann Faith, executive
director of the CR-USA
Foundation, which will
pay for 60 percent of
such expenses and will
manage other funds
coming from program
sponsors such as Banco
de Costa Rica, RACSA and
Intel.
“Operation Success is
one of several
educational programs
promoted by the CR-USA
Foundation, which
involve the use of
information and
communication
technologies in learning
processes,” Faith said. |
