- Special Issue: New Learning Scenarios from a Transformative Perspective. From Global Approaches to Local Proposals
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Teacher training: technology helping to develop an innovative and reflective professional profile
Formación de educadores: la tecnología al servicio del desarrollo de un perfil profesional innovador y reflexivo
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education volume 12, pages 30–43 (2015)
Abstract
The society of the early twenty-first century is characterized as the knowledge society. Schools cannot afford to remain detached from the fast-moving changes that are taking place and have therefore made innovation one of their main priorities. One of the most profound changes and innovations experienced in the last few years concerns digital technologies. While knowledge and mastery of digital tools and processes are guarantees of equity in the education system, schools also have to face the challenge of making digital tools and applications available to all their pupils without neglecting any aspect of their educational function. At the same time, teachers must also involve themselves in the digital competences that are the unavoidable landmarks of the education of today and of the future. As with other professions in other sectors, being familiar with these digital tools and processes, mastering them and constantly updating them are now components of the teaching profession.
When viewing these new learning environments from a general transformational perspective and the technology-related teacher-training perspective, we need to bear in mind the following three dimensions:
Firstly, both initial and continuous teaching training programs should largely focus on developing the competences teachers need to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching purposes. Continuous training should be organized around the teacher’s autonomous learning but it should also incorporate a training and implementation strategy that is based on work carried out by teams of teachers.
Secondly, the undeniable emergence of new codes and languages that have their origin in digital technologies brings new ways of thinking and doing and new ways of learning and accessing knowledge. It also means that teachers must be prepared to abide by a set of professional ethics and standards that require them to work individually and collectively to conceptualize the educational role that should be played by digital technologies.
Thirdly, the signs of the times require us to think about creating teaching center models that incorporate pedagogical innovations and open, flexible, creative, real and participatory digital projects and in which digital technologies can be the best pretext for innovation and for encouraging creativity in the classroom in order to introduce cross-disciplinary and organizational changes and open up schools to the community. These digital projects should make teachers question their individual roles, promote teamwork and involvement with others, generate synergies with other departments and areas as well as other teaching centers and their staff, and, finally, help to realize the dream of being “networked and web-based”.
Resumen
En la sociedad de principios del siglo xxi, caracterizada como la sociedad del conocimiento, la institución escolar no puede permanecer ajena a los ritmos del cambio actual, por lo que la innovación constituye una de sus principales y prioritarias tareas. Es obvio que las innovaciones y los cambios más profundos que hemos experimentado en estos últimos años han venido de la mano de las tecnologías digitales. En este sentido, el conocimiento y el dominio de las herramientas y los procesos digitales supone una garantía de equidad en el sistema educativo, así como un reto para la escuela, que debe poner al alcance de todos sus alumnos las herramientas y las aplicaciones de la tecnología digital sin renunciar a su función educativa. Asimismo, el profesorado no puede quedar al margen de unas competencias digitales que son hitos ineludibles de la educación actual y futura. El conocimiento, el dominio y la constante actualización de estos procesos y herramientas digitales ahora son parte de la profesión docente, al igual que les ha sucedido a otros muchos profesionales de otros sectores.
Teniendo en cuenta los nuevos escenarios de aprendizaje, en general, desde una perspectiva transformadora y, en particular, desde la formación de los educadores en relación con la tecnología, pueden destacarse tres dimensiones.
En primer lugar, el esfuerzo de la formación del profesorado, tanto initial como permanente, debe centrarse, en gran parte, en el desarrollo de las competencias necesarias para la utilización docente de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC). En el caso de la formación permanente, esta debe articularse en torno al aprendizaje autónomo del profesor, pero con una estrategia de formación e implementación basada en el trabajo en equipos docentes.
En segundo lugar, la indiscutible emergencia de nuevos códigos y lenguajes originados en las tecnologías digitales implica nuevas formas de pensar y hacer, y nuevas maneras de aprender y de acceder al conocimiento. Esto le supone tal exigencia éticay deontológica al profesorado que este tiene que trabajar tanto individual como colectivamente en la conceptualización del papel educativo de las tecnologías digitales.
En tercery último lugar, los signos de los tiempos nos exigen pensar en modelos de centros educativos que incorporen innovaciones pedagógicas y proyectos digitales abiertos, flexibles, creativos, reales y participativos; centros en los que las tecnologías digitales puedan ser el mejor pretexto para innovar y fomentat la creatividad dentro del aula, para provocar cambios transversales y organizativos, y para abrir la escuela a la comunidad. Estos proyectos digitales deberían interpelar personalmente y fomentar el trabajo en equipo y la complicidad con el compañero; generar sinergias con otros departamentos, áreas, claustros y centros; y en el fondo, permitir hacer realidad el sueño de encontrarse en red y en la red.
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Hepp K, P., Prats Fernández, M.À. & Holgado García, J. Teacher training: technology helping to develop an innovative and reflective professional profile. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 12, 30–43 (2015). https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v12i2.2458
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v12i2.2458