La Salle-URL prepares its 5th year of work in the Urubamba International Cooperation Project

The Urubamba International Cooperation Project, promoted by Proide Campus from La Salle Campus Barcelona-URL is performed in Sacred Valley, in Cusco Region (Peru). Teachers, students and former students of La Salle Campus-URL participate in this already clearly established project, which enters its fifth year of work this course. One of its objectives is to promote the involvement of students of La Salle Campus Barcelona and Ramon Llull University inviting them to participate in the project, and even become part of the team that travels to the Sacred Valley every July (through final degree project, elective credits or openly collaborating). The project includes two project lines. On the one hand performances will be held in the town of Urubamba, training teachers and students of the Higher Public Institute of La Salle and the entire educational community of the town of Urubamba. On the other hand, the e-Yachay Project will work in the High Andean educational communities located more than 4000 meters height, introducing new technologies (ICT) to students as mechanism of social inclusion. Training of teachers and students La Salle Urubamba Higher Institute of Public Education is a public school that aims to support the education of rural communities in Sacred Valley between 3000 meters and 4500 meters height. The main problem is that most locals speak Quechua and do not understand much Spanish. The language barrier is a limitation for Quechua speaking people to access studies. Teachers and students training of the educational community of Urubamba is done in this centre, providing blended training courses.Last year 7 training courses for students and teachers from La Salle Urubamba were conducted, providing 54 certificates. Project e-Yachay: ICT introduction in High Andean communities The word 'yachay' means 'learning' in Quechua.The e-Yachay Project main goal is to enhance socio-educational inclusive environments through the introduction of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the High Andean educational communities.Last year training activities for students were conducted using ICT as a vehicular tool and faculty staff were trained to give continuity to the activities. This work aims to increase student's motivation for schooling, and to achieve an inclusive socialization. Students learning in primary and secondary in these environments is very slow due to various physical and psychological constraints. Creating a minimum digital learning infrastructure promotes learning, and this project provides mobile devices that are used to perform image and video activities related to different areas of knowledge. This is complemented by the use of computers that allows students to learn how to edit text and images, creating presentations and storaging the collected material. Educational software that enhances basic skills learning such as mathematics and Spanish language is also installed.Thus students also acquire basic digital skills. In July 2015, a pilot programme in the rural community of Pampallacta where very satisfactory results were obtained was performed.Students worked in groups and shared the images taken to interact with each other and appreciate the results of peers. Particularly with videos, typical scenes from the Inca culture -environment and family scenes- were captured; photographs of animals and plants of the region were taken with mobile devices again form a valuable documentary source. In 2016 the e-Yachay Project was consolidated, in this 2017 Pampallacta and the goal is to replicate the project in other High Andean educational communities.