Mobile Applications as Tools for Virtual Education in Indigenous Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

The present work includes the development and validation of two bilingual mobile applications initially created as basic learning tools in Educational Institutions in Amazonian indigenous communities of the Shipibo-Konibo and Taushiro languages, both with weakening and extinction problems. The applications seek to overcome or adapt to the conditions and limitations of indigenous communities, caused by a series of bureaucratic administrative processes, and also seek to be complementary tools or support to the Virtual Education services that the Peruvian government has been promoting in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and although classes continue to develop virtually through television, radio, software messaging services and electronic platforms, these media have been receiving a series of criticisms by parents and part of the education sector regarding the quality of service. Through the realization of two case studies, favorable results were achieved on the use and potentialities of supporting the educational social inclusion of indigenous children. Finally, a comparative table was made on the frequent problems, the new problems that have arisen in the context of COVID-19, and the scope and advantages of each of the mobile applications. At the same time, it is suggested that government strategies incorporate the use of interactive mobile self-learning applications as complementary mechanisms to current educational services, which should be contextualized to the geographic, cultural and linguistic environment of students, taking into account the limited telecommunications and electricity coverage of indigenous communities in Peru.