The ProFuturo digital education program, promoted by Fundación Telefónica and Fundación “la Caixa”, has been recognized as one of the top ten educational solutions worldwide that improve the professional development of teachers in the ” Teachers for a Changing World Spotlight ” , an initiative of HundrED, a prestigious global NGO specialized in education, and the World Bank with the support of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The finalists were announced this Thursday at a digital event.
The initiative ?? that is part of the global research project ” Teachers for a Changing World: Transforming Teacher Professional Development ” ?? presents a list of the world’s most scalable and impactful teacher professional development solutions. The jury highlights ProFuturo for the development of competency frameworks that allow teachers in vulnerable environments to acquire the digital pedagogical skills necessary to deliver high-quality distance education as part of their basic curriculum. The use of technology to facilitate the professional development of teachers is one of the main criteria on which the selection has been based.
The applications have been reviewed by 51 experts from around the world , who conducted almost 900 evaluations of the shortlisted candidates . ProFuturo is the only Spanish representative among the almost 500 proposals from 70 countries. Magdalena Brier, General Director of ProFuturo, assures us that “We are especially excited that the program has been highlighted among such a high-level group of change agents. It is an endorsement of the work that we have been doing in the last five years and without a doubt it means an extra motivation to continue striving to achieve a shared goal with HundrED, the World Bank and the GPE: to achieve an inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. ”
The top ten finalists show how technology can be used to support teachers throughout the educational cycle, providing technology-based teacher development programs to achieve better quality at one or more educational levels. They also show that it is possible to reach teachers in rural areas and communities at risk of exclusion, even in conflict zones. Together with ProFuturo, the list of outstanding projects Comunidad Atena, LeadNow !, Your Class, Your Country, PerformEd, Teach2030, OneSky for All Children, Global School Leaders, Puentes Educativos and Inspiring Teachers: Peer Coaching Platform make up the list of outstanding projects.
This is the second time that HundrED has singled out ProFuturo as an innovative project. In 2020, the Finnish NGO recognized the program as one of the 100 best educational innovations in the world within its Global Collection. Both recognitions mean, in addition to gaining worldwide visibility, being part of a prestigious community with a network of change agents in the education sector in more than 100 countries.
The commitment to e-ducation as an engine of change
ProFuturo has been selected for its innovative digital education program with which it seeks to reduce the educational gap in the world by bringing quality digital education to vulnerable environments in 40 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The key to the program are teachers, learning activators and a fundamental piece to achieve a significant change in educational quality. For this reason, ProFuturo focuses many of its efforts on their training, accompaniment and continuous support.
Through innovative digital teaching-learning experiences, it enhances the pedagogical skills and technological appropriation of teachers so that they are able to provide the best education to children, inviting them to integrate technology in the classroom and promote collaborative work . Despite the enormous difficulties faced by the education sector and the high percentage of schools that remained closed, in 2020 ProFuturo trained 535,000 teachers and contributed to improving the education of more than 9,500,000 boys and girls , representing 175 % more than in 2019 .
As a result of the pandemic, ProFuturo made its training resources available to teachers around the world with the opening of a free access digital learning platform , with more than 160 courses and 2,800 hours of training offered in different languages . In addition, it has launched the “Digital Teachers” project in Spain, a training itinerary in digital skills to promote the use of technology in pedagogical practice. Extremadura has been the first community to join this project, which has accompanied teachers in the digital transformation of their classrooms.