Raspberry Pi in Argentina: Teacher Brings Coding to Rural Schools

Eliana Otrera, a teacher in Forres, in Argentina’s Santiago del Estero province, has spent years bringing computing and robotics to rural schools, and since 2020 she has run Raspberry Jams so students can get their hands on computers and programming.

Her route into technology was not straightforward. Otrera told Raspberry Pi, in an article published by the foundation, that she decided to study Computer Science at university but had no computer of her own. “Since I did not have my own computer, I had to go to internet cafés and rent one. I’m not talking about the 1980s – this was in 2003!” she said. Her parents were eventually able to buy her a first computer as she progressed through her degree.

From Conectar Igualdad to the first Raspberry Jam

In 2017 Otrera joined Conectar Igualdad (Connecting Equality), a programme that distributed Pi-Top portable computers for educational use, and began bringing coding and robotics to rural schools. It was through that distribution that she first encountered Raspberry Pi.

“There I understood that talking about the digital divide was not simply a matter of statistics or a lack of devices. The technology gap had faces, names, and stories,” she said of her time in rural schools.

In 2019 she started promoting Raspberry Pi among colleagues as an educational tool. With two like-minded colleagues, she helped organise the province’s first community Raspberry Pi workshop in Forres on 6 March 2020. Workshops followed in schools, cultural centres and academies in Forres and nearby areas, and interest has grown among students, teachers, families and technology enthusiasts, according to the article.

Trivia games, robots and an automated greenhouse

At introductory levels, Otrera said, projects include electronic trivia games and basic robots, where the decoration and artistic expression students put into the finished object matter more than the automation itself. More advanced students have used Python and Minecraft to program constructions that build institutional buildings automatically, and a robotics group has evolved an automated greenhouse from an initial model into work on irrigation control, drone deployment and crop planning for agricultural projects.

The interview appeared in issue 170 of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, which is available online, with a print subscription that includes a free Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W for six- or twelve-month sign-ups.

Sources

• Bringing computing to rural schools in Argentina — Raspberry Pi News