META – Technological Educational Environment for Learning is a virtual platform created to strengthen the teaching–learning process within Paraguay’s educational community. With an approach based on innovation and collaborative development, META offers resources and services designed to enhance the skills of students and teachers in an equitable and holistic way.
META aims to support the development of 21st-century skills, especially the acquisition of digital skills among students and teachers from public educational institutions.
PYensa is PYeduca’s first creative technological space in the capital city, located in the Villa Morra neighborhood.
It is a space for innovation, digital creation, and collaborative learning, offering workshops for children and teens in upper primary and secondary levels from private educational institutions. These activities include hands-on experiences in 3D printing, laser cutting, and technologies related to design, robotics, and digital creativity, with the goal of inspiring future vocations and bringing technology closer to young people in an accessible and meaningful way.
This center is set to become a reference point for the local community. It is designed to promote technological learning and creativity through STEAM competencies (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), with the purpose of developing learning experiences that build lifelong skills through technology.
The Municipal Serranía Technology Center (CTSM) aims to provide the citizens of Caacupé with a space for training and learning, helping reinforce the city’s position as the first technological city in Paraguay. The CTSM offers workshops and events for children, youth, and adults from the district and surrounding areas, contributing to digital inclusion and community development.
The KuñaTIC Program aims to empower girls and women in STEAM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) through workshops and mentoring sessions that help them develop the technological skills needed to compete in the global technology sector.
From 2019 to 2024, KuñaTIC workshops were carried out in partnership with Plan International to reach adolescent girls. As part of the project, tablets were distributed to participants. We have also worked in collaboration with other organizations such as the Embassy of Canada, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), Roshka, and Universidad del Norte.
Training Areas:
- Digital citizenship
- Global collaboration
- Computational thinking
Partners:
- Embajada de Canadá
- Plan Internacional Paraguay
- Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (OEI)
- Roshka
- Universidad del Norte
Learning Together: Accessible Digital Textbooks
A project led by the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC), supported by PYeduca and UNICEF. It provides teachers with theoretical and practical tools to understand the importance of diverse learning styles, promote participation through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and integrate accessible digital textbooks into the teaching–learning process.
Recognition:
Awarded the “Proyecto Cero 2024” Prize, standing out among 523 nominations from 97 countries for its innovation, impact, and scalability.
At PYeduca, we developed the accessible digital textbooks—an unprecedented achievement in the country and a milestone in Paraguay’s educational history. This initiative demonstrates that technology is a key ally in addressing real needs and achieving inclusion and equal opportunities for all students.
Light Up Your Classroom: A Guide for the Inclusion of Students with Blindness
An initiative developed in partnership with the Santa Lucía Association and PYeduca.
The “Light Up Your Classroom” guide was created to provide practical answers to the most common questions teachers face when welcoming students with blindness into their classrooms. Through clear and simple guidance, the goal is to provide educators with the tools they need to identify and use educational resources that support the inclusion of students with visual disabilities, ensuring their full participation in school activities.
The UCPN program, implemented in the district of Caacupé since 2009, is based on the belief that technology—combined with a constructionist pedagogical model and strong community engagement—provides children, educators, families, and local authorities with the opportunity to actively participate in the development of their community.
Story:
The “One Laptop per Child” (UCPN) Program was presented globally by its co-founder Nicholas Negroponte at the World Economic Forum in January 2006. Internationally, the program is developed by the organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), created by professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to design, manufacture, and distribute non-commercial laptops to children in developing countries for educational purposes.
In May 2008, a group of enthusiastic young Paraguayans attended the Annual OLPC Summit at MIT in Boston. They never imagined that, after four days of intensive seminars and conferences, they would end up speaking with one of the global leaders of the program—opening the door for this dream to become a reality in Paraguay.
They returned to the country with a promise of a donation of 4,000 XO laptops from OLPC—donated by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)—on the condition that a local organization would take responsibility for the counterpart required to implement the program. Once back in Paraguay, these young people and other supporters left their jobs and committed themselves to the creation of PYeduca. They spent intense months presenting the initiative to local entrepreneurs, political leaders, civil society, and public authorities, accompanied by well-known technical experts and educators who also joined the cause.
The objective was to demonstrate that the UCPN pedagogical model could be successfully replicated in public schools across the country. The community of Caacupé was selected as the pilot site due to its proximity to Asunción and its high levels of migration. Thus, the program would serve not only to reduce the digital divide but also to connect children with family members who had migrated abroad.
Strategic alliances were established with universities, private companies, and other civil society organizations. The role and contribution of the media were key to the program’s development and to PYeduca’s visibility, with coverage in major publications and close accompaniment throughout the implementation process.
That same year, PYeduca received a donation from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to cover the implementation and maintenance costs of the pilot for two years in 10 schools across the city.
In 2011, after two successful years of implementation, support from ITAIPU Binacional made it possible to reach 25 additional schools, allowing the program to expand to all 35 public and subsidized schools in Caacupé.
Thanks to uninterrupted management of the UCPN program, PYeduca has become a national reference in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applied to education. Since 2015, the UCPN program has become official Educational Policy of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC).
In 2017, PYeduca won the National Public Tender from the MEC to implement the UCPN program in Caacupé within the framework of the “Consultancy for the incorporation of technology in education (1-to-1 Model) in the district of Caacupé.” PYeduca is responsible for implementing the program in its 35 schools for a period of three years, beginning in January 2018. The work plan includes educational, technological, and community-focused activities, carried out by a team of 11 professionals.
PYeduca created the country’s first digital city in Caacupé by providing laptops to students, ensuring connectivity in schools and public squares, and offering continuous training for children, teachers, and families.
The Program in Paraguay
The UCPN program implemented in Caacupé, driven by PYeduca since 2008, has received support from the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) since its inception. It represents an invaluable opportunity for school-aged children, who individually use technology as a tool to expand their learning horizons.
The program is based on the theoretical framework of constructionism, developed by Seymour Papert—pioneer of artificial intelligence, creator of the Logo programming language, and leader in computer-assisted learning—as well as by his mentor Jean Piaget, renowned scholar of children’s logical-mathematical reasoning.
The program considers that technology, combined with a constructionist pedagogical model and strong community involvement, enables children, educators, families, and local authorities to participate actively in the development of their community.
Indeed, when a child brings a laptop into their social environment, families and the broader community become involved in learning processes. The child becomes a multiplier, generating an impact that extends beyond the classroom and the school.
The UCPN program implemented in Caacupé since 2009 is grounded in the belief that technology, in conjunction with a constructionist model and community engagement, allows all stakeholders—children, educators, families, and local authorities—to take an active role in community development.
The 1-to-1 pedagogical model differs from other technology-based educational models because computational technology is used as a tool through which each child can enhance their creativity and construct knowledge based on personal experience. “Learning to learn” is the revolutionary turning point in students’ cognitive and creative processes. Each child, as the final owner of their device, holds in their hands a tool that enables them to access information, communicate, and—above all—build knowledge freely.
Philosophical Principles of UCPN
UCPN is founded on philosophical principles that must be respected during implementation for proper application of the model. These include:
- Early Age: The earlier a child enters the program, the more quickly they acquire the skills necessary for digital fluency.
- Ownership: The child owns the laptop, meaning learning is not limited to formal education settings nor interrupted after school hours. Children can continue learning at home or through personal projects outside school. This also indirectly benefits their families.
- Saturation: Global UCPN experience shows that community ownership occurs when all members participate in the project. That is, all children in the district must be part of the program. This fosters cooperative learning and reinforces equity in access to the same opportunities.
- Connectivity: Through the internet, children have a window to the world of information, enriching the program by giving them the ability to explore beyond their immediate environment. Schools thus become community hubs, even outside class hours.
- Free Software: Information and knowledge must be universally accessible. For this reason, UCPN aligns with the global Open Source movement. Free software is used so that each child can create a personal learning environment and access a universe of data that allows them to create and/or modify programming tools according to their needs.
Graphical Interface Used
Sugar is the graphical interface and set of applications built on free software, designed for educational purposes by the developer community of Sugar Labs.
Sugar functions both as a desktop environment and a collection of activities. Activities, as the name suggests, are applications that require active student participation. They automatically save progress to a journal where all completed tasks can be reviewed.
Many activities can be shared among students for real-time collaboration. Children interact with the tool in a friendly and dynamic way, within a learning environment built with open and flexible code that allows them to shape and adapt their creative process.
Since it is not restricted by commercial licenses or patents, Sugar is grounded in the principle of sharing knowledge. Hundreds of developers—and even children around the world—contribute to building learning tools so that all users of the platform can benefit from them.
It is a space for creation and entrepreneurship, equipped with a 3D printer, laser cutter, milling machine, scanner, and other tools that allow any idea to be transformed into a prototype.
Its mobile component makes it possible to reach any part of the country, helping democratize access to its tools, materials, and learning experiences. It enables users to move from being mere consumers of technology to becoming designers of their own ideas, products, and solutions.
Equipment:
- Laser Cutter
- CNC Milling Machine
- FDM 3D Printer
- 3D Scanner
It is also equipped with high-performance computers, Arduino kits, and soldering and woodworking tools.
Samsung Innovation Campus:
Samsung Innovation Campus is part of a global training program for young students from public secondary schools. It offers training in coding and programming, along with soft skills development to improve their employability and their ability to apply and implement their knowledge in everyday life.
Through this educational program, participating students learn concepts and practical coding skills using Scratch, Arduino, Rurple, HTML, CSS, Python, Java, JavaScript, .NET, and explore how these tools can be used to solve real-world problems.
Beneficiaries:
- 30 Secondary-Level Students
- 2 Technical Schools in Fernando de la Mora and Ciudad del Este
Samsung Tech Institute:
A project aimed at promoting youth learning and providing practical tools to improve their professional readiness and employability. It has been implemented with the support of Samsung Paraguay since 2017.
Areas of focus:
- Personal and professional development
- Technical training
In numbers:
- 86 beneficiaries
A project carried out in partnership with Chevrolet that aimed to promote values-based education through sports. The initiative included interschool football tournaments and the presentation of proposals focused on teamwork, respect, and core values that should guide behavior at all times and in any competition.
The project invited students to represent values that strengthen teamwork by using the Scratch technological tool.
500 balls donated
500 children benefiting from the program