One of our USAID-funded activities that turned out to be an excellent example of scaling up was the US/Brazil Learning Technologies Network (LTNet). Former country project manager Eric Rusten, whose contact information is on the contractor's web site <http://learnlink.aed.org/Projects/brazil.htm>, provided me with this summary a while back:
Signed in October 1999, LTNet was initially designed to be a simple on-line clearinghouse for static information (reports, case studies, web sites, etc.) on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education to enhance teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools in Brazil. In addition, LTNet was charged to organize and carryout workshop and seminars on an opportunistic basis. LTNet's primary partner in Brazil was the ProInfo program at Brazil's Ministry of Education. Over the course of three years, LTNet grew and transformed itself in a variety of ways. These transformations enabled LTNet to move from serving a very few information and technology elites in the major cities to meeting the ICT and education needs of thousands of teachers across Brazil from urban to rural communities. Together the processes of scaling-up and transformation created a synergistic mutually reinforcing cycle that continues to push and pull LTNet forward. This complex interactive process of scaling-up and transformation that occurred in the LTNet project can be categorized in the following ways: Static-to-Dynamic / Passive-to-proactive scaling: The LTNet web site changed from only passively providing static information (most of which was in English with Portuguese abstracts) to being a proactive provider of active and interactive content much of which is generated and managed by educators across Brazil. Supply-Driven to Demand-Driven: At the start, LTNet was largely a supply-driven initiative from Washington DC. Although staff made efforts to learn what information was needed and desired by Brazilian educators, most of the project actions were driven by Washington, DC staff. Toward the end of the first year LTNet started becoming a much more demand-driven effort with Brazilians providing significant input into decisions about what useful services LTNet would provide. This change resulted in a scaling up in the degree of local ownership of LTNet. Limited Scope to Broad Scope: LTNet started with a rather narrow scope of activity that proved to have had very little demand among Brazilian educators and rather quickly scaled-up its scope to provide: a broad spectrum of training and professional development activity; virtual environments for collaborative learning among schools within Brazil and between Brazilian schools and those in the US; enabling local experimentation and innovation via user driven pilot activities; and creating opportunities for Brazilian educators to test out their new skills with integrating technologies into teaching and learning. Centralized decision-making to a network of collaborative partners: LTNet started as an initiative under the US/Brazil Partnership for Education with ProInfo as the principal institutional partner. During the first year of the project the partnership relationships started to scale-up and evolve to include actors from other parts of the Ministry of Education, for example the TVEscola project, State and Municipal Secretaries of education across the country, NGOs, corporations, and the US Embassy. This scaled-up complex of partnership relationships enables LTNet to achieve results and impacts far beyond the limited financial and staff resources of the LTNet project. Serving a few ICT elites to meeting the needs of thousands of public school teachers across Brazil. As a passive web based clearinghouse full of static documents, LTNet would have never reached many educators or had any significant impact on the use of technology in teaching and learning. The processes of transformation and the resulting scaling-up in scope, outreach and responsiveness is enabling LTNet to directly and indirectly impact education in Brazil in a variety of significant ways. The continued growth of LTNet is being driven by an ever-expanding network of teachers who are making LTNet into their own on-line learning environments. LTNet later became a registered NGO when the project ended! Stephen Tournas CTO, LearnLink and dot-EDU USAID Washington, DC ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
