“At least two children in each class suffer from bullying, a situation that is disadvantaged by the connection with the digital environment and violence on the Internet”, as UNICEF states in a study.
The advance of technology occurs at dizzying rates and it is necessary to fight against this type of situations at the same speed.
Fortunately, more and more initiatives and projects are emerging such as APERTA, a solution that automates a process that allows teachers to evaluate the social environment of a class and thanks to which, in a few minutes, it is possible to obtain a sociogram that reflects the social position that they show off the students in the class.
In just over a year, this project has already received several awards. The last one, the Best ICT Project with Social Benefits, awarded by the College and the Association of Telecommunications Engineers of Galicia.
At Emetel we are fortunate to have Adrián Lombardía in our team, a member together with four Degree in Telecommunications Technology Engineering at the University of Vigo, of the group APERTA.
How does this initiative come about? What support have you counted on to get it going?
The project arises from an offer proposed by the Association of Autism Spectrum Disorders of Vigo (Teavi) for a Final Degree Project. We implemented it for a subject called Project Laboratory, which seeks to develop an innovative idea in the field of telecommunications.
To implement it, we counted in the phases that lasted the subject with the support of two teachers (Martín López Nores and Julio Martín Herrero) and the collaboration of the Teavi Association, although we have taken separate paths. We also have the advice of a tutor at Telefónica (Juan José González Broco) for a year, since we won the ThinkBig Vigo Award in its 2018 edition.
How does the application work?
It consists of two interfaces, one for the student and other for the teacher. The teacher will be able to create or choose predetermined tests choosing four questions from a list divided by age and attained by psychological studies. Once the test and the credential have been created, the student will enter the pin and answer the test choosing five of his or her classmates in order of priority (beeing able to choose less than five or none). When the students do the test, the teacher will have access to the results at the moment, being able to get a global idea of the classroom environment and visualizing it in the form of a sociogram or filter by student name or social profile if preferred, where they provide relevant information. For example, the cohesion and integrity of the student.
What are the main benefits that teachers and students can fin in APERTA?
One of the clear objectives of our project is to facilitate the work to the teacher, through a simple and concise interface, where results are obtained without having to devote much effort or invest too much time, the main reason why this type of test so manual are not carried out in practically any educational center.
In relation to the students, what we seek is to prevent cases of bullying or social exclusion to be able to stop it in its early ages. Also in the classrooms where students who suffer a clear problem that is not detecteed, we seek to improve the general cohesion and group complicity throughout the different controls that are carried out each course, trying to raise these values that the teacher can compare through the methodologies of the intervention phase that we are developing right now.
What are the main difficulties with which you have found?
At first, the choice of the diagram to represent the sociogram in a simple and visual way for the teacher and perhaps to get an efficient data analysis, but we were able to solve them.
At what stage is the application in this moment?
We are currently refining the website and advancing in the intervention stage through dynamics and concrete activities that will be recommended to the teacher, depending on the results obtained in the tests.
Have you already received an offer to market it?
Well, we are waiting for some support or offert to have a consistent economic support that allows us to continue developing and combining it with our particular activities.