The meeting was held within the framework of the Seminar organized by the ULS, with the aim of discussing what universal accessibility and real inclusion in that aspect really is.

In the offices of the Department of Education of the University of La Serena, a meeting was held between the Accessible City Corporation and the teams of the Directorate of Services, the Information Technology and Computing Center and professionals in charge of the inclusion project 1799 MINEDUC of the ULS , and where the topic was addressed: “Accessibility in infrastructure and communications.”

The meeting, led by the team in charge of the 1799 ULS project plan, aimed to reflect on the current accessibility processes in relation to the infrastructure and communications that the University has been developing, based on the experiences and knowledge of the Accessible City Corporation.

The meeting allowed us to expand knowledge about universal accessibility based on current regulations in inclusion processes at the national and international level, resolving doubts, generating new ideas and giving suggestions to be implemented in the current changes that are being made in the infrastructure of the study house, highlighting the importance of a good diagnosis from the study of the critical areas to modify.

Likewise, examples of other universities at a national and international level that have made progress on the issue of accessibility in their facilities were raised.

The event organized by the University of La Serena, was attended by university authorities and national and local exponents related to the topic.

With a large number of participants, the first Seminar on Accessibility to Infrastructure and Communications, La Serena más Inclusiva, organized by the University of La Serena, was held within the framework of the MINEDUC ULS1799 Project, where different exponents of national and local level related to the topic of universal accessibility.

One of the participating institutions was the Accessible City Corporation, whose representative instructed on current infrastructure accessibility regulations. The Director of the ULS Information Technology and Computing Center, Andrés Moya, also spoke, referring to how technological procedures have been modified to create, at the University, more accessible platforms for people with disabilities. Meanwhile, Carolina Aguilera, from SENADIS Central Level, taught the new formats and technologies for inclusion.

Likewise, the team from the Central Library of the University of La Serena was presented, led by Francisca Álvarez, a documentary librarian, who announced the work that the Library has done with audiobooks designed for students with visual disabilities.

The accessibility works carried out at the ULS were also announced, carried out by the Services Directorate, represented by its Director Marcos Sepúlveda, within the regulatory framework specified by the Law.

Also present at the presentations were Aguas del Valle, represented by the Head of Communications, Elizabeth Salinas, who from the private sphere told the experience of the transformation in terms of the corporate policy of diversity, inclusion and accessibility, with its Program “ Opening Spaces”; and the national person in charge of Public Use in Protected Wild Areas of CONAF Central Level, Ángel Lazo, who reported on the National Strategy for Universal Accessibility to Nature and its environment.

Regarding the importance of this event, the Director(s) of SENADIS emphasized the commitment that the ULS has with respect to the issue of inclusion and universal accessibility, highlighting the fact that the institution, before the promulgation of the Law, already was making changes to achieve inclusion.

About 150 people attended this activity, both from the public and private spheres. Among the authorities present were the Director(s) of regional SENADIS, Sergio Veliz, the Vice-Rector for Research and Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Eduardo Notte, representatives of the University of Atacama, Universidad Católica del Norte and Universidad de O'Higgins, of the municipalities from Ovalle, Coquimbo and La Serena, organizations, Teletón Foundation, academics and students of the University of La Serena and the community in general.

These types of events will be a constant within the commitment that the only state university in the region has with the community, giving a clear signal that the University is for everyone and for everyone.

During the visit, the Comptroller gave a presentation in which he gave a brief review of the main milestones of this important institution throughout our history, the strategic objectives defined by its administration and the oversight powers conferred on it by the Law.       

Fourth-year students of the ULS Auditing program, together with teachers Romina Galleguillos J. and Christian Villegas B., made a visit to the offices of the Coquimbo Regional Comptroller on November 21, where they were received by the Regional Comptroller, Hugo Segovia S.

During the visit, the Comptroller gave a presentation in which he gave a brief review of the main milestones of this important institution throughout our history, the strategic objectives defined by its administration and the oversight powers conferred on it by the Law.       

In addition, María Fernanda Ramírez G., head of the Legal Unit, and Cristhian Moller, head of the Internal Control Unit, participated, who also spoke about the main functions of the Legal, and Accounting and Audit areas, respectively.

They detailed the main products obtained from each of these functions, the Legal function being: the decision-making, legal pronouncement, registration, investigations and court of accounts; while the Accounting and Audit function: audits, special investigations, inspections of technical works, monitoring, attention to audit references and budget information.

During the activity, there was active participation from the students of the Audit career, who valued the holding of this type of event, which allows them to learn more about the work carried out by this institution.

Dr. Cristián Noemi participated in this meeting where the teaching of the national language in the Dominican Republic was discussed, with the aim of identifying problems, presenting proposals for solutions and outlining expectations.

The School of Letters of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) held the “Second International Seminar on Language and Thought”, before an audience made up of hundreds of professors and university students from the Spanish language area. The academic and Director of the Department of Arts and Letters of the University of La Serena, Dr. Cristián Noemi, participated in the meeting, who represented Chile and the institution.

The academic event was dedicated to the linguist, Celso Benavides García, who lived most of his life dedicated to linguistic research in the country.

In the academic space, the teaching of the national language in the Dominican Republic was debated, with the purpose of identifying problems, presenting proposals for solutions and outlining expectations.

The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Dr. Esmeraldo Bravo, opened the event with a motivational conference. He highlighted the importance for the country's development of paying attention to the issue of reading that worries teachers so much. At the same time, Bravo Mena highlighted the outstanding work of the director of the School of Letters, Dr. Roa Ogando, in the organization of such an important event.

In the opinion of the Director of the School of Letters, Dr. Gerardo Roa, the objectives were achieved, “since the invited panelists are linguists, writers, philosophers, historians and Spanish professors at the university level, which allowed them to develop in depth each issue".

Among the speakers were the linguists: Irene Pérez Guerra, Manuel Matos Moquete, Odalís Pérez Nina, Orlando Muñoz, Julio Cuevas, Berson Rosario, Germania Bello, María Virtudes Núnez Fidalgo, Haydee Pepén, Carlisle González, María Cristina Ortiz Monagas, Merlyn de la Cruz, Ibeth Guzmán and Ruth Cuevas.

Also participating as speakers were the Director of the School of Philosophy, Dr. Edickson Minaya; the historian Juan de la Cruz, and the editorial manager Obdulia García.

Source: https://proceso.com.do/

The initiative was born from collaborative work between the Directorate of Institutional Studies and Planning and Microsoft to support the PMI FIPULS Institutional Improvement Plan for pedagogies.

For the second consecutive year, “Hack your class” was held, a training session that Microsoft professionals carried out for teachers belonging to the University of La Serena, where they had the opportunity to update knowledge and learn new techniques, in order to apply them in classroom and offer it as innovative material to its students.

This training, which was jointly organized by the Graduate Monitoring Office and Microsoft, was part of the cooperative work carried out by the Directorate of Institutional Studies and Planning and the multinational technology company, which since 2017 has cooperated with different projects. intended for the implementation of new technologies and learning processes to the educational community of the University of La Serena.

The Microsoft professionals who gave the talks were present on the occasion, as well as the person in charge of the Chilean Education Community, Raimundo Valenzuela, who was emphatic in emphasizing the commitment that the organization has adopted with the teachers and students of pedagogy, ensuring that " As a company we seek to empower students and teachers around the world to achieve more through technology. That is why we look for these types of instances in order to bring teachers from all regions of Chile closer to educational innovation, so that they dare to enhance learning with technology and manage to inspire students.”

The Director of Institutional Studies and Planning, Mg., was also present at one of the sessions. César Espíndola, who assured that this work is carried out within the framework of the University's policies of continuous improvement and links with the regional and national environment, and added that these instances not only benefit ULS teachers but also graduates. of the pedagogies, who were interested in participating in this transfer event.

The teachers received this training in an intensive day in blocks, where they were able to learn about technology that can be incorporated to stimulate new ideas in the class process.

ULS teachers and pedagogy graduates learned about the OneNote system that facilitates note-taking, information collection and multi-user collaboration, and offers the possibility of adding drawings, diagrams, photographs, multimedia elements, video and scanned images.

“We know the importance of education and how innovation positively impacts the lives of Chilean students. That is why we will continue working with Chilean teachers so that they can empower themselves and continue inspiring thousands of students in Chile with the aim of preparing them for the world of tomorrow,” said Microsoft professional, María José Correa.

Microsoft has already trained more than 7 teachers from different institutions in the country and has led for a couple of years the global initiative called Hack The Classroom, which seeks to encourage teachers from around the world to innovate.

The prototype seeks to be an innovative technological solution for the teaching and learning of microscopic biology, especially in public educational establishments in the country that do not have access to expensive optical microscopes.

The teaching of cell biology at a microscopic level is scarce in school and mainly rural educational centers, due to the lack of technological equipment to carry out practical laboratory work. In short, the main problem that microscopy has in the second basic cycle of Natural Sciences is the high cost of optical microscopes, since their prices range between 150 thousand and 2 million pesos.

Given this background and as a way to contribute to the teaching and learning of microscopic biology in public educational establishments, both urban and rural, in the Coquimbo Region, and taking into account the new curricular bases and study programs of the MINEDUC , the specialized technician Edgardo Mundaca, and the professor of Biology and Natural Sciences, Mariano Rodríguez, with the sponsorship of the Research and Development Directorate (dependent on the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Postgraduate Studies) and the Department of Biology of the University of La Serena , designed and created a smartphone adapter, made from electronic and household waste, that allows microscopic images to be captured.

Edgardo Mundaca, who is an official at the ULS, explained that the idea was born in 2014 after receiving groups of professors and students from various establishments at the University, an instance in which they realized that many of them did not know how to use microscopes. , mainly because there are no resources to have this equipment in schools. “This year we have gone to the establishments and that reality has not changed,” said the author of this adapter built with sustainable material (toilet paper tubes, ice cream sticks, batteries, LED light, elastics, etc.) and that is adaptable to any mobile device.

“88% of schools in Latin America do not have laboratory implementation. "This means that there is low scientific literacy," said Mariano Rodríguez, a graduate from the state campus, who added that the low-cost prototype could be used as a technological tool for teaching microscopic biology in the second basic cycle (5th grade). , 6th, 7th and 8th grade). 

To ensure the permanence of this technological resource in the curriculum, manuals for the construction and use of Micro-Hoek were designed, led by a multidisciplinary team from the University of La Serena. The construction manual -protected by DIBAM- can be download here and will be available soon on the website of the Department of Biology of the house of higher education.

“The manual is free and each person in their homes and schools will be able to make their adapter. Anyone will have access to this guide,” said Mundaca, who is emphatic in indicating that Micro-Hoek has a social purpose.

Rodríguez, meanwhile, pointed out that next year they hope to incorporate the prototype and its manual in public establishments in La Serena and Coquimbo, and announced that later they will consider adding “founded didactic proposals, using didactic models of analogical teaching, conceptual change, inquiries that Today, at the Latin American level, they are widely used and have theoretical references.”

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