The platform has active courses such as EducaMus Profes, offered as training, and EducaMus Estudiantes, aimed at students of Pedagogy majors.

Currently, music education is included as a mandatory curricular discipline in Chile's primary school system. You are assigned up to two pedagogical hours of class per week. Of the teachers who teach it, only 2,25% have musical training (Ministry of Education of Chile (2015). The rest have the obligation to teach the subject, but they lack the didactic and musical skills necessary to do so. These skills They should be developed during their initial training period.

Despite this evident need, several studies show that the majority of Chilean universities do not take into account basic musical education in the curricula of pedagogical careers. On the other hand, full-time teachers dedicate more than 40 hours a week to their work, making it very difficult to attend in-person continuing training courses. Continuing training centers (CPEIP) do not offer continuing musical training courses and there are not many private offerings of this type of courses either. As if that were not enough, the supporters of educational centers do not generally have a proactive attitude towards the continuous training of their teachers, not recognizing the hours of training in their work day. Finally, in the new teaching career, the updating needs of teachers are added obligations for them and directly affect their performance.

In order to collaborate in the improvement of this training, EducaMus has been designed, an online platform hosted on the Digital Campus of the University of La Serena and designed to host massive online courses. These courses are dedicated to initial and continuous training of the teachers of our country, both in Basic General Education and in Kindergarten Education. Specifically, the active courses within the platform are EducaMus Profes (offered as a training course) and EducaMus Estudiantes (offered for students of Pedagogy majors). The advantage of these courses is that the user sings using the computer microphone and the software evaluates their intonation. Also, the user hits rhythms using computer keys, with the program associated with the course in charge of evaluating its rhythmic accuracy.  

The EducaMus courses have been carried out within the framework of the “Digital Platforms for Artistic Education” project, financed by Conicyt through the Advanced Human Capital Attraction Program. Its director is Dr. Mario Arenas, from the Department. of Music from the ULS, and the guest researcher is Dr. Jesús Tejada, from the U. of Valencia.

Getting to know the different campuses of the house of higher education was one of the objectives of the visit.

The Accompaniment and Effective Access to Higher Education Program (PACE) of the University of La Serena coordinated a visit to the state campus for the third-year students of the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School in the commune of La Higuera, in order for them to learn about college life.

The students' visit began at the ULS Headquarters with the cordial welcome of the Academic Vice-Rector and institutional representative of the PACE Program, Dr. Jorge Catalán, who delivered a message of optimism and focused on wanting is power, appealing that students should make an effort, be responsible and fight for what you want with conviction.

On the other hand, the Executive Coordinator of the PACE ULS Accompaniment Program, Viviana Romero, expressed her pleasure at the students' interest in getting to know the university environment. “I am very happy to be able to welcome all of you today and see in your faces the desire to get to know our house of higher education, since becoming part of the experience of knowing other realities is essential to expand your world and, above all, expand your odds. You come from a commune far from the university centers and that is why I hope that the visit is beneficial and that you enjoy it,” she expressed during the welcome.

Along these same lines, the director of the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School, Alejandra Zúñiga, said that “I sincerely have no words other than gratitude for the management of the PACE Program and the wonderful reception by the Academic Vice-Rector and the PACE ULS team; I feel that it is wonderful that my students have this opportunity to get to know the University from the inside, since it is not the same as what we or the school teachers can tell, adding that we are in La Higuera, a commune relatively far from educational institutions. higher, so living the experience is something else.”

On the other hand, the PACE ULS Coordinator and social assistant of the school, Claudia Vega, stated that “it is a great opportunity for the children to approach the university environment early, this makes them begin to visualize themselves within this world from now on or in the case of some of my students has awakened their interest in entering higher education and, furthermore, the fact that they were able to be part of university classes, as well as learn about different areas of the University, seems to me to be a success.”

As for the visit, it included a tour of the Andrés Bello Campus facilities and a visit to the Department's classes. of biology. Also the visit to the Isabel Bongard Campus, Irma Salas Library and the Ignacio Domeyko Campus.

The student of the Pedro Pablo Muñoz School, Gastón Castillo, stated “it has been an enriching experience, since all of our course was able to get to know the University from the inside, it is completely different from being told to live it, I liked it a lot and in addition to that they give me desire to continue studying and learn more about what courses are taught and all that.”

Source: Press PACE ULS Program

The objective of the meeting is to promote a space for debate, multidisciplinary updating and stimulation of scientific and technological research in a wide spectrum of areas of knowledge, promoting exchange and integration between Argentine and Chilean researchers.

Nearly 200 researchers, academics and undergraduate and graduate students from Chile and Argentina are participating in the Second Binational Scientific Research Congress, which takes place in La Serena from November 6 to 9, as part of the Paso Agua Integration Committee Negra and the Commission of Higher Education Institutions of the Coquimbo Region.

This second version of the Congress, supported by the Regional Council of Coquimbo, aims to promote a space for debate, multidisciplinary updating and stimulation of scientific and technological research in a wide spectrum of areas of knowledge, promoting exchange and integration between researchers. Argentines and Chileans, thus generating opportunities for academic development related to regional, national and international interests.

The meeting considers the participation of renowned speakers from the scientific context and a series of master classes, presentations and posters, the thematic axes being: Binational economic development; Education and culture; Turistic development; Social development; State, society, power and politics; Medicine and health; Present and future energy; and Geoscience, environment and environmental sustainability.

During the opening ceremony of the meeting, the Regional Mayor, Lucía Pinto, highlighted that the integration between the Region of Coquimbo and the Province of San Juan “must be cultural, academic, scientific and this is an opportunity that demonstrates this: sharing knowledge , advance together through the knowledge of science and technology. “We are very proud to receive this instance and we will continue to develop this type of initiatives.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Commission for the Integration of Higher Education Institutions, Adriana Ledezma, pointed out that this Congress seeks to “promote multidisciplinary updating; promote exchange and integration, because this Commission was born within the framework of the Paso Agua Negra Integration Committee; and generate knowledge through the projects that young researchers have presented, those who have completed their undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and who have completed their research, and we will be able to share that knowledge expressed in presentations during these days in the different institutions that make up the Commission".

While the Undersecretary of Promotion of Scientific and Technological Activity and Innovation of the Government of the Province of San Juan, Pablo Díez, valued the organization of this Congress and indicated that “it is very important to unite ties between our teachers, scientists and students from both the Province of San Juan as well as the Region of Coquimbo, is necessary, is valid and has an objective, which is the common good of the country.” And he added that currently one cannot have an isolated view of education and science, “we are in a globalized world where the weaknesses and strengths of one side of the Cordillera as well as the other are very good at compensating for scientific work and training.” .

For her part, the president of the Regional Council of Coquimbo, Adriana Peñafiel, emphasized that for CORE this integration with the Province of San Juan is very important, “particularly on this occasion we are emphasizing the holding of this Second Binational Congress where we can generate exchange scientific and technological, and also the brotherhood between scientists and students of both countries, with the aim of always promoting this Agua Negra Pass.”

The inauguration of the binational meeting was held in the Gabriel González Videla Congress Hall of the Municipality, with the presence of authorities, researchers, academics and students from the Coquimbo Region and the Province of San Juan, and included the conference of the journalist Andrea Obaid, creator, editor and host of the TV program “Tecnociencia en Ruta” on Channel 13C and Channel 13, author of the books “Tecnociencia: 30 Scientific Tourism Routes in Chile” Part 1 and Part 2, and host of the program Superciencia en Radio DNA.

The organization of this II Binational Scientific Research Congress is in charge of the Commission of Higher Education Institutions of the Coquimbo Region, which is made up of the University of La Serena, Universidad Santo Tomas, Universidad Católica del Norte, Universidad Central, Universidad Technological Institute of Chile INACAP, Universidad Bolivariana, Universidad Pedro de Valdivia, Universidad de Aconcagua, Instituto Profesional de Chile, Instituto del Valle Central and Instituto Profesional AIEP. In addition, the National University of San Juan and the Catholic University of Cuyo join the organization.

Valparaíso University was the host of the third day of work of the Thematic Table on Healthy Aging.

The third day of work of the Thematic Table on Healthy Aging, held at the University of Valparaíso, framed in the Objective Network Framework Agreement of the Consortium of Universities of the State of Chile, was classified as positive.

The activity, which was headed by UV Faculty of Pharmacy academic Mariane Lutz, included the participation of the Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation of the host institution, Dr. Adrián Palacios, and a group of about 35 researchers belonging to twelve CUECH universities, who reviewed the progress in the objectives established in the previous sessions.  

This was explained by Iván Palomo, coordinator of the table and researcher at the University of Talca, who indicated that “being the third day, we are very grateful to have the hospitality of the UV, who brought these researchers together to work on a topic that today Nowadays it is very present. The population is aging rapidly in our country, there are about 12% of the population according to the last census of people over 65 years of age. We have to worry about this population in different areas, and that is why this Research Network was created.”

 “This is a research group that seeks to publish scientific works, generate new projects collaboratively and create networks between all universities. This is to improve the quality of life of older adults in Chile, which is why we have to investigate both at a basic level and at an applied level, in different guidelines,” he added.

These guidelines refer to Healthy Eating and Aging, Physical Activity, Biology of Aging and Social Determinants of Aging, said Mariane Lutz, who participated as organizer of the meeting. “As a network our job is to do research and generate products. In this third workshop we focus on evaluating progress and aspects to improve. Also confirm what products we can show and how we can project what is coming for the coming months and years,” she explained.

Associative work plan

According to what was expressed by the Director of the Network Objective Framework Agreement, Mónica Quiroz, the importance of this working group associated with the issue of aging is “how universities are working associatively. This is a relevant milestone that reflects a new work practice that invites us to work in a much more collaborative and, above all, articulated way.”

And he added that "we are in the presence of a large number of national researchers from 12 universities in the country who have gathered at the University of Valparaíso to strengthen and give substance to the analysis project and specific work on healthy aging."

Source: CUECH Research Network

The publication is part of the Monographs and Study Texts Series of the Research and Development Directorate of the University of La Serena.

The publication revives the experiences of the normalista teachers through several testimonies of those who were in charge of training and educating hundreds of young people in the Coquimbo Region. The book called "The pedagogical spirit in the biographical narrative of normal school teachers" was presented in an emotional ceremony held at the former La Serena Normal School and attended by authorities, academics, students, former normal school students and their families.

The academic from the ULS Department of Education, Dr. Silvia López de Maturana, was in charge of giving life to the significant work, and on the occasion she referred to the origin of the publication. “It is a book whose sole purpose is to pay tribute to the normal school teachers who dedicated most of their lives to educating, preserving the desire to learn and giving meaning to the act of teaching. My interest focused on listening with genuine interest to the stories of the teachers who studied at the Normal School, to transcend the sole professional career, that is, I was interested in knowing what surprised them, why they were sad, what made them happy, how they lived the day by day, what happened inside the School; everything that is not in books, but in the collective and oral memory that is transmitted from generation to generation. In that way, I was learning and enriching myself pedagogically,” she expressed.

The activity included the words of the normal teacher Susana Pacheco, who was in charge of writing the prologue of the book. "Our generation came out with the new conception of education, where the human mind is recognized as a living force and the child as a being that thinks, reasons, judges and has all the possible and necessary faculties (...), the education received At the Normal School of La Serena, he placed as his central axis the formation of the character of the future teacher and for this he accompanied her daily in the exercise of those practices that in daily life tend to awaken all the noble feelings", was part of the story of the teacher who experienced this valuable training for herself.

Likewise, on the occasion, the words of the historian of education and winner of the National Education Award (2015), Iván Núñez, who contextualized the subject of normal schools at the time when the teachers carried out their training, were projected. “Perhaps the profession of normalistas did not have the demands and complexities of today's university professions, but they were the profession closest to the needs of the majority of the popular world,” he asserted.

The ceremony was attended by the protagonists themselves who are part of the stories. One of them is Elba Carmona, who through poetic words expressed with great feeling the spirit of what it was like to be a normalista. The copy of the book was also given as a present to the representatives of the families of Isabel Barraza and Daphnne Castillo, and to teachers Cecilia Zúñiga, María Cristina Vallejos and Susana Pacheco, for being active collaborators of the publication.

It should be noted that this work also had the support of the fourth-year student of the Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education degree, Paola Araya, who transcribed part of the testimonies. “This task has been one of the most pleasant that I have had to perform, every afternoon in the teacher's office, I projected myself discovering how the educational process happened long ago and for me, as an educator in training, it was exciting to be able to see how the teachers still kept the pedagogical spirit over the years,” she said.

Finally, Professor María Paz Cerda delighted those present with the performance of a song from the time, culminating the launch with a tour of the Memory Room of the Former Normal School.

Source: Unit for the Integrated Management of Pedagogies (UGIP) | PMI FIP ULS1501 – CM ULS 1755

Students of Pedagogy in Differential Education from said institution participated in the event, who were able to ask questions and clarify doubts about inclusion and its different prisms.

In order to publicize the importance of inclusion and the measures that the University of La Serena is promoting, an informative talk was held on the “Comprehensive support program for ULS students within the framework of Inclusion and universal accessibility project ULS1799”, aimed at students of the Pedagogy in Differential Education degree at the Catholic University of Valparaíso.  

The event, led by academic Dr. Georgina García Escala and support professionals, Alejandra Galleguillos and Sandra Salazar, brought together more than 20 students, representatives of the UCV degree program. The objective of the talk was to provide information to the students about the objectives, characteristics and processes developed within the ULS1799 program, where all academic, local, regional, national and international entities are linked in favor of inclusion processes.

The talk held at the Irma Salas Library raised awareness among the group of students about the importance of their role as future differential educators in the development and promotion of inclusion processes, which facilitate the development of competencies for the development of the person in vocational training, in the labor and social fields.

The students expressed great interest in all the activities developed by the program, highlighting its comprehensiveness and coverage in all its processes.