Photography: The reality is worrying for the Region, after the report delivered by the Biobío Health Seremi, which reported 632 new infections, 71,833 accumulated and 3,093 active. Red numbers that are not only limited to the number of new infections, since the record of 1,266 deaths was also released, […]
It is March 1st, tomorrow, set the Ministry of Education (Mineduc) as the date of start of the school year in Chile and with the position of making efforts so that in 2021 the face-to-face classes, suspended on March 16, 2020, and establishments were asked to define safe return plans, complying with health protocols according to their conditions. The 2021 operating plans include more limited and flexible days, as well as reduced capacity in campuses that assume face-to-face attendance, so many have defined hybrid formats that combine face-to-face class with virtual class, alternating different groups of students, although with a voluntary criterion in attendance.
As the critical health and epidemiological situation persists, the concern and denials of presence do not cease on the part of different actors such as teachers and parents, although aspiring to this is something that experts understand and yearn to return to. “I believe that the classroom and face-to-face classes are irreplaceable. School, education and the brain are social, therefore, we need interaction and that is always richer when we have the student present ”, holds Mabel Urrutia, doctor in Psychology and Linguistics specialist in Neuroscience, academic of the Education Faculty and integral of Group of Psycholinguistics of the University of Concepción (UdeC).
Something as basic as that the teacher can observe the expressions of the student while explaining a content to identify if he is understanding or see his attitude to evaluate attention or motivation is transcendental to guide a class or activity and with the online format it was difficult, even using videoconferencing platforms because, for example, a large number of those connected were with cameras turned off and did not even turn on their microphones to give their opinion in classes, counts as their experience and is repeated with a teacher that is spoken, of all educational levels.
From one challenge to another
That is not to ignore the contribution of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education, because Dr. Urrutia recognizes their role in a classroom classroom and also a virtual one, with advantages that were demonstrated to face education during a pandemic year, but also that the 100% online format was a challenge for educational communities. It was mounted abruptly and was unknown to a large part of the establishments, educators and students; the educational system was not prepared nor in technological infrastructure, starting with the digital divide that unveiled the crisis and made it difficult for thousands to access education, and there were clear shortcomings in the technological skills to effectively use ICTs in teaching and less to teach in a 100% virtual way.
It is that, first, the teacher “You must not only know and manage technological resources, but also know how to integrate them into the classroom and class”, highlights Pedro Salcedo, doctor in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and director of Master of Educational Informatics for Teaching and academic of the Faculty of Education UdeC. This is closely linked to the fact that the way to plan a class is the key and that “The pedagogical practices, methodologies and activities, and the ways of evaluating are and should be different in presence and virtuality”, highlights Marcelo Careaga, doctor in Philosophy and Educational Sciences specialist in Educational Informatics, academic of the Education Faculty and researcher Center for Research in Education and Development (Ciede) of the Catholic University of Santísima Concepción (Ucsc). The point is that great expertise of Chilean educators is face-to-face, so it is a mistake to replicate a face-to-face class in an online one. And it could be a frequent problem, especially at the beginning.
Still, all three scholars agree that sand they made every effort to do their best and it can be said that a challenging 2020 was overcome gaining experience to better face the online education that is far from leaving a 2021 that brings new challenges, a hybrid format also unknown for the generality of the system. On this, Salcedo believes that “We are going to overcome new problems”, because the dynamics of virtuality and presence are very different and it will be necessary to make plans that give answers to both simultaneously. And Careaga confirms it, revealing that “without a doubt that the subject has management implications and implies changing the educational paradigm ”, new and necessarily, because the conclusion is that ICTs in education are here to stay.
Technological competences for education: much more than using ICTs
In the Chilean educational system it was an abrupt change, perhaps too radical, but applied ICTs, online teaching or hybrid formats are not new. In the latter, the main experiences in Chile are at the level of higher education such as courses, diplomas or postgraduate courses, although there were also some more advanced schools.
But, adding and subtracting, the result is that “Technological, social and cultural transformations are taking place and education was lagging behind in Chile”, maintains Marcelo Careaga and that “The pandemic accelerated a demand circumscribed to a process of technological disruption and digital transformation both in education and in work, medicine and health”, that other nations are very advanced.
For the same reason, his conviction and that of the experts in general is that what happened in the pandemic marked a before and after, that processes will remain -and thus must be- installed, because the past 2020 demonstrated the potential of technologies for education.
A means to improve
It is not about replacing the teacher or that classes should only be online, there is much that cannot be emulated in cyberspace or in a technology, but “They are a means, a tool”, highlights. “Technologies have advantages that, if the teacher knows how to integrate and take advantage of their class, in a physical or virtual classroom, they would allow to improve education”, says Pedro Salcedo. That undoubtedly benefits today’s students who will build tomorrow’s society.
For the same reason, it becomes so the training and preparation of teachers so that they have the skills that allow them to take advantage of ICTs. One is to know them, but there is also the pedagogical dimension. On this, he emphasizes that the basic thing is that “When planning a class, first determine the content to be taught, the teaching strategy-activity and thirdly the technology.”
It is a multiplicity of resources that exist to support the teaching-learning processes, starting with the orientation of a class until the delivery of content. For example, he says that there are AI systems that, by applying a test, allow to identify learning styles, type of intelligence of the student or their interests, which would help define more personalized teaching strategies. Mabel Urrutia adds that the use of smartphone, videos, GIFs, social networks or blogs, which he has used in his classes in different ways, are common resources for the new generations so they motivate them, encourage their creativity and often add a quota of humor to the processes.
The foregoing is of crucial emotional impact in times as complex as 2020 and emotions are always decisive. “In a research project on mental health for undergraduate students, we found a relationship between emotional state and learning. It affects, necessarily and unfortunately, learning ”, states.
Teaching role
Technological disruption, digital transformation in education occur in a context that has to do with the need for build a new pedagogy, new ways of teaching and learning, Careaga highlights. You need to innovate, get out of the traditional, because you cannot continue to do classes the same as a century ago, children and young people today have very different characteristics and needs from past generations, the world in which they were born is another.
One of the big changes that are needed, in his opinion, “Is that the teacher stops being a cognitive filter to have an accompanying role in the learning processes of the subjects as individuals and as collective subjects, who can manage their knowledge and not only for individual consumption”.
Indeed, the great objective of education must be the development of skills in students, skills and abilities that allow them to function in the XXI century. Autonomy, self-regulation and collaboration are part of those mentioned by Salcedo. But, also basic technological competences such as teaching in the concrete use of ICTs as well as ethics in cyber-coexistence, in aspects such as safeguarding private information, respect for intellectual property, taking care of what or how is written on social networks or blogs and avoiding sharing images in which others appear without requesting authorization.
From there, Mabel Urrutia emphasizes demystify the concept of digital natives, used to refer to the generations that were born with the use of advanced ICTs and social networks, such as today’s schoolchildren and university students. The term suggests that they are advanced users and prepared in all the necessary technological skills, so they should not be taught: a mistake that can be dangerous. Not knowing how to use social networks do they know how to do it properly, nor do they have vast knowledge of all the technological tools and there are even university students who do not know how to use all the Office resources and there are large gaps in knowing how to search and filter the information they access on the Internet so that it is reliable and used properly. All of them are aspects that must be addressed from the new education, for which teachers must be prepared and with their technological skills developed.
* 3,300 establishments will be operational (for face-to-face classes) from this Monday, according to the Mineduc. Number is 40% of all those who delivered their 2021 operating plan.
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