Keytlin Garcia Rurush is a young primary school teacher from the city of carhuazin ancashwho decided to teach children from remote communities in the region loreto. She is the creator and designer of Iway, a digital robot with which your little students playfully interact during their classes without fear of asking questions.
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the young professor teaches classes at the San Antonio populated center of the district of Santa Cruz of the province of Alto Amazonas, in the Loreto region. Keytlin remembers that one day when she finished her classes, she asked herself how she could get the girls and boys not to be afraid to ask, because that was a great obstacle for her. In addition, she was thus able to gauge whether or not her students were picking up on her classes.
WHO IS IWAY?
She drew a picture with eyes, hands, legs, antennae, painted it bright red, gave it a friendly smile, and called it i waywhich in the Amazonian language shawi means “strong rain”.
“The idea arose out of a need. I wanted to make the children ask questions, so that they are not ashamed to participate in class. Now with the Iway application everyone wants to talk”says the young 24-year-old teacher, who graduated from the Primary Education degree at the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), with a scholarship from the National Program of Scholarships and Educational Credit (Pronabec) of the Ministry of Education.
Loreto: ‘Iway’, which in the Shawi Amazonian language means “strong rain”, is the digital robot created by Professor Keytlin García with which her students have fun and learn. (Photo Pronabec)
Keytlin knew the basics of programming. After making his first design, he began to deepen his knowledge of the language, the codes; and to review different video game development platforms, such as Unity, App Inventor –from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–, where he was finally able to create the digital robot. “It had to work without internet”specifies the teacher of Educational Institution 62135, since, in this community of the jungle, although it has satellite internet, connectivity is not enough, nor is the telephone signal.
After a couple of weeks, counting his nights of work and effort, he finally heard the voice of i way. “Hello!” replied the robot.
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“He is like a friend. For it to work you have to greet him. Then you can ask him questions and he will talk to you. It has a database in which I put the information that we are developing in class. For example, about the human body. The girl asks: ‘How many bones does she have?’ i way answer back. It also solves math operations. Or about science: how day and night originate. Iway knows it and tells you. It’s like a spoken Wikipedia.”explains the young teacher.
i way has produced the change that Keytlin was looking for. The 24 students from the first to the fourth grade of primary school, whom she teaches as a multigrade teacher, want to talk to the robot. The fear of expressing themselves has disappeared due to the possibility of interacting with this playful and friendly-looking character, who has been installed on the tablets given to the school by the Peruvian State.
“It also helps me to discover which are the topics in which the children have more doubts, because Iway gives me the report of the questions that are repeated”says the young innovator.
“Learning is not just receptive. You can tell that the child is learning when you ask. ‘Do you have any doubts?’, He would tell them at the end of the lesson and no one answered. He wanted to break with that, that they participate, that they refute. Now they talk up to the elbows! It already seems like a real class”adds the young professor with great satisfaction.
Loreto: Elementary students from the San Antonio town center enjoy this new fun way of learning with their teacher Keytlin García. (Photo Pronabec)
keylin garcia born in Carhuaz, Ancash. The vocation of being a teacher comes from his mother, Soledad Rurush, who is also a teacher. She remembers that since she was a child she accompanied her to her classes: she was like her assistant. When she had to decide which career to study, she was motivated to choose Education also because of the Pronabec scholarship, which made her dream come true. And Peru gained a young teacher who wanted to teach in the communities of the Peruvian jungle.
“In 2021 I managed to get my degree in Education and I was working in the city, but something I have always wanted is to be the change in rural areas, so I decided to go to the jungle”says Keytlin Garcia.
WHERE DO YOU TEACH?
San Antonio is located in the Shishinahua ravine, about six hours by boat from the city of Yurimaguas. Parents of families and teachers were surprised that a young teacher came there to teach, but they quickly welcomed her with affection. As a team, with the participation of the entire community, they have also managed to carry out a successful timber tree reforestation project, with which the children also learn, by applying research questions and doing science together with the world of plants.
“I am passionate about technology”comment the Professor Keytlin Garciawho has received various awards, such as being the winner of the 2020 Innovation Challenge, a program organized by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), and which, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, sought to promote the “Aprendo en Casa” platform, a strategy education implemented by Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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