Education in the digital classroom – Open University of Catalonia

Sept. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- How should teachers act in light of new technologies? What should their role be? These are just some of the questions posed by teachers in the twenty-first century ? doubts that were aired at the conference entitled, "The revolution in digital books and digital classrooms in teaching. How to educate digital natives." A discussion arose from the seminar, "The digital book: the new challenge for teaching staff?", organised by the summer university within the eLearn Center framework, and a new edition of which will be held in March. The idea of the seminar was to open the debate between primary and secondary school teachers on the Catalan government's initiative to promote the use of digital resources in the classroom. An initiative that has created the need for training by teaching staff in the appropriate use of these tools.

Internet access and new technologies have revolutionized society as a whole. Their impact on education is now beginning to be felt. This is just the start of a great change that concerns teaching staff and raises the questions as to which strategies to follow to help students in their learning. “Not only does the content concern us, but also the transformation of the training content and the tools used, as this means important changes to methodology”, said the Vice President of Research and Innovation and Director of the ELearn Center, Begoña Gros, during the presentation of the conference. For his part, the Director of the ELearn Center Academic Area and the “Masters in Education and ICT” program, Albert Sangrà, highlighted the potential of new technologies in improving education. “We are concerned with how to employ technologies usefully and appropriately,” said the Director of the Master’s Degree course. The Director of the Digital Skills Area and of the “Innovation and Creative Use of ICTs in Education” Postgraduate course, Montse Guitert, talked “of the need to train teaching staff in methodologies associated with the uses of ICTs rather than tools.”

The ICT train
Not boarding the digitalization train means being marginalized both socially and professionally. This was the powerful message from subject tutor with the UOC’s Digital Skills Area, Antoni Albert, a speaker at the conference. Aware that the new generations are growing up surrounded by new technologies, such as social networks, he believes that teaching staff also need to get up to speed on this and acquire minimum levels of technological knowledge to help them in their everyday work. His experience as a lecturer helps him advise other colleagues about the importance of boarding the new technologies train. “Mastering ICTs helps provide a different form of contact with students,” he stressed. Contact which often translates into a better relationship, as the student, who knows about new technologies, feels closer to the teacher if they too understand them. Given the progress of ICTs, the message from Antoni Albert is clear, “We must not be afraid of ICTs.” “We have to want to learn and relate what we have learnt,” he added.

Digital versus analogue knowledge
From the moment new technologies become a feature of the classroom, the role of both teaching staff and students change. “The student has to become more active, more of a creator and teaching staff have to be a guide, encouraging the student to create educational content,” explained Antoni Albert. He cited digital books as an example. “It’s great that there are digital books which act as a script for students to follow, but it’s also good for teachers to make digital notes and students to work with digital tools.”

Albert feels that in the classroom we need to know how to combine elements of traditional education with technology. To do this, he believes that not all knowledge should be through the computer and that students also need to learn how to think, reflect and use pencil and paper when necessary. “I’m not advocating a 1800 turn, but a 900 one is possible,” he said.

Doubts regarding Netbooks
The netbooks and their gradual inclusion into Catalan classrooms sparked the debate among conference-goers. For Antoni Albert, they are not sufficient as learning tools. “Netbooks are not powerful enough. They may be all right for students in the first years, but third-year ESO students will grow out of them.” Their incorporation into the classroom, promoted by the Catalan government, has led to many doubts among teachers. Some conference-goers expressed their fears of not knowing how to work with digital books and of being unaware of the result these will have on learning. Given this uncertainty, Albert Sangrà is committed to changing the rules of the game within the classroom. “We need to find new mechanisms to enable the student to become an active part of the learning process,” he said.
According to Antoni Albert, one of the dangers of digital books “is that they are made of glass.” For this secondary school teacher, these teaching materials need to be dynamic and provide links to other websites or videos.
For Montse Guitert, collaboration among teaching staff is the key to tackling the doubts generated by new technologies. “Training among teaching staff has to be an exchange of experiences. We need to find ways of sharing teachers’ concerns in order to find solutions to ICTs,” she said.

The challenge facing teachers
Facebook, Twitter and Messenger are some of the instruments most commonly used by young people today to communicate with each other – new technologies that students use basically as a form of leisure and entertainment. For Antoni Albert, the challenge for teachers is to get across to students that the internet is also an educational and cultural tool. An opinion shared by Montse Guitert. “We need to work out how to get the most out of ICTs in terms of new learning methodologies and content creation,” she said.

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The UOC began more than 15 years ago as an e-learning institution and solely as an e-learning institution. As a result, our teaching and learning model is flexible and innovative. Located in Barcelona, Spain physically and virtually around the globe, the UOC is an online university that has been winning international awards on e-learning since 1997.