Humberto Galo Romero-When I was a child, I would ask my mother almost every night to read my favorite story found in the small and deteriorated blue book we had at home. It did not matter how many times I would listen to it; I would always laugh with the joking expression that Uncle Rabbit would give Uncle Coyote--unquestionably, the two most representative characters of the popular Nicaraguan narrative tradition.
UAM-CUSE students are part of the leading team for the Bibloko Project, which seeks to construct a culture of reading in Central America by creating a virtual collection of short stories for children between the ages of 4 to 12 years of age coming from regional authors’ donations. This collection will focus on improving reading and writing abilities in children, exercising mental skills through reading (i.e. synthesis, analysis, induction, deduction, critical thinking), reinforcing formative education through emphasizing ten transversal competencies (ethics, leadership, environment, love for learning, entrepreneurship, civics, personal hygiene, humor, family relations, creativity), and providing an educational tool for regional teachers. This virtual collection will be created in a webpage and as a download version, which will be donated to the one-computer-per-child program. Professors will receive training on classroom management and how to use Bibloko as a classroom tool. Children and professors in the area will directly benefit from this project since reading and writing are necessary tools for quality learning, higher retention rates, and higher intelligence indexes. Society as a whole will benefit from this project!
