Since the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020, the Unicamp Volunteer Center team has responded to more than a thousand requests for equipment from students, including computers, notebooks and chips with an internet package. In one of the latest actions to expand digital inclusion, the group, through a Unicamp graduate, managed to take a notebook, a tablet and two internet chips to indigenous students in the Xingu Indigenous Park.
Unicamp Volunteering operates through a solidarity network of teachers, students, alumni and staff. On one of its fronts, the group organizes actions for the digital inclusion of Unicamp students, mobilizing and organizing donations and allocation of equipment. In relation to indigenous students, who are a priority group, more than one hundred demands were received and met. For those who returned to their communities after the suspension of face-to-face activities in 2020 chips were sent with internet package.
Professor Josianne Cerasoli, coordinator of the Human Rights Observatory (ODH), to which Volunteering is linked, highlights that some shipments face logistical difficulties. Therefore, when Unicamp graduate Felipe Martins went on an expedition to Xingu, he saw the opportunity to take the equipment to Yanapa Mehinaku Kaikuru and Ahuagu Kuikuro, two indigenous students from Aldeia Afukuri, of the Kuikuro ethnic group, in Mato Grosso (MT ). "When a demand arises, everyone mobilizes, makes contact and tries to find a way to meet it", says Felipe, who is a member of Volunteering. He also says that students were having difficulty accessing classes, and that when they received the equipment they quickly went into the classroom to use them.
Solidarity actions similar to this permeate the work of the Volunteer Center and help to strengthen the University's inclusion policy, as assessed by the ODH coordinator. “The difficulty of remote teaching is real and it is a challenge. Unicamp has a strong inclusion policy, it is not possible for you to bump into equipment. The emphasis, then, is not on equipment, but on inclusion. We need to fulfill this role within our politics”, says Josianne.
Effort for digital inclusion continues
Due to the continuous demands and with a view to the entry of new students in 2021, the Volunteer group reinforces the need for donations of equipment to expand access to remote teaching. In addition to the campaigns, Unicamp also created the Digital Inclusion Program for Freshmen (PIDIU), which is allocating a thousand tablets to new students. The Program is aimed especially at students covered by social inclusion programs, with the idea of strengthening the loan of equipment necessary for remote academic activities. To this end, resources are being invested in the acquisition of around a thousand tablets. Professor Dora Maria Grassi, advisor to the Rector's Office and one of those responsible for PIDIU, highlights that the tablets are in the purchasing process.
Through PIDIU, priority is given to students entering the program for their first access to an undergraduate course approved in the Scholarship Selection Process of the Student Support Service (SAE), and those entering through the Higher Interdisciplinary Training Program (ProFIS) . For ProFis/2021 entrants, it will be possible to assist everyone who declares they need the loan. New SAE scholarship holders will be assisted considering their position in the SAE selection process.
In addition to the PIDIU program and volunteer actions, Unicamp's academic units also coordinate efforts in parallel to raise the necessary equipment for their students.
In remote teaching, concern for the student grows
The importance of taking into account the difficulties faced by the student is highlighted by the dean of Undergraduate Studies at Unicamp, professor Eliana Amaral, as one of the characteristics that were strengthened during remote teaching. In addition to the mobilization for digital inclusion, according to assessments carried out during 2020, it was noted that teachers began to have a greater concern for students, going beyond their concern with the subject. For Eliana, this change will also have impacts when it is possible to return in person, with teachers more attentive to these issues.
“We know that the sense of inclusion and engagement is directly proportional to the fact that the student feels cared for. This attention has to do with resources and equipment, but it also has to do with presence. In general, there is a willingness on the part of Unicamp professors to be close to the student. So one of the issues that remote teaching showed was people's concern for each other. Just as the student recognizes the teacher's effort, the teacher recognizes the students' effort and their difficulties”, he assesses.
Channel to request or donate equipment
For students who need equipment, the guidance is to write an email to the address voluntariado@dedh.unicamp.br. They are asked to provide their name, Academic Record (RA) number and request. For equipment donations, contact can also be made via email voluntariado@dedh.unicamp.br.
Professor Mara Patricia Mikahil, member of the Volunteer Team and advisor to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, highlights the importance of mobilization around the donation of equipment and highlights the group's work to ensure that equipment allocations are made as quickly as possible. "There is a dynamic to try to speed up everything as quickly as possible so as not to hinder the student's activity."
