#WEEK 9/ Translator/ "Teaching in a Digital World."

"Greetings, I'm Cristina! This last week, I will be your translator for assignment 9. Come on, let's do our last bit for this subject!"

In this week, which has been the conclusive one for all our experience, we have seen what kind of competences teachers should have in this new digital era. As such, it is the peak that we hope to reach after having given some basic notions about the application of ICT resources, at least building a base for it. After having seen some of the theoretical frameworks proposed for this topic on the true competencies to be considered, our objective was to see what we had understood. In this sense, it will be part of my work to convey our understanding of the contents to you through the following key concepts, which summarize our experience doing this work:

Source: Self-made, with the use of https://wordart.com

-Competence: When defining this word, we refer to the full capacity to successfully develop a specific type of activity from the application of a series of knowledge, attitudes or skills.

As we see, this is the concept that bases all this task, in which it is made explicit what kind of knowledge, attitudes and skills are required to carry out the teaching work. Being that important to question what type of action they should take, in what areas and in what way. According to the readings provided for this task, we have been able to observe the contrast of many theoretical frameworks on how ICT should relate to the teacher and the context of it. In general, depending on the vision that society had of ICT and its potentialities, they would require some skills and others. In this way, the importance of knowing what we expect from the education of this time and how to transmit it in competencies is highlighted to indicate what type of training the teachers of tomorrow should have according to factors such as technology, which is increasingly integrated into daily life and behaves as a crucial element to take into account.

-Digital era: A somewhat abstract concept perfectly defines that current stage in which society is dependent on technology for its continuous development. Understanding as development the large number of activities that allow this entire system not to collapse.

In a way, this definition is quite general and simple, isn't there something more concrete? Well, the answer is what we must ask when trying to determine why we want to include ICT in our work. ICT, understood as all those technological tools that allow the manipulation, sharing or storage of information, offer that holistic perspective in the competencies described by Linda Castañeda, Francesc Esteve & Jordi Adell (2018). In effect, they do not become instrumental in nature, but rather are involved in our activities, causing all kinds of changes to emerge in a variety of contexts. Even in education. The possibilities and the effects that they have help the teacher to improve the quality of the education that he offers, not only as a complement but also assuming a certain innovation. However, these types of notions are not quite common, because they remain implicit in our activities. Therefore, the teacher's mission is to document these possibilities and effects to take advantage of them, whether in his work as a researcher, educational planning, teaching, ...

-Social responsibility: As such, the concept gives us a clue on how to interpret it, being the commitment of all members of society to establish the common good.

This aspect takes on a certain importance in the activity since according to the different theoretical frameworks that have been seen until the creation by Linda Castañeda, Francesc Esteve & Jordi Adell (2018), that most of the ICTs were not assigned a social character . This implies that within the competencies they required, they did not question teaching the student the concept of a technology tool in general. In this sense, the teacher is a professional who does not complete the entire education process, understanding education as that development process that helps the child to lay certain foundations for different areas. By not taking into account that technology is not only a tool, but a resource that influences us, the teacher does not complete the student's training process. Thus, the need for the teacher to teach beyond what has been given so far is specified, raising the student on the background of technology as critical and reflective digital citizens.

-Technological neutrality: As such there is no official definition, but it has been proposed as the idea that society decides what type of use it makes of technology, without intervening in it.

This concept complements the explanation of the previous one already explained about liability social skills that the teacher must take among their digital skills. We will simply go on to offer one more reason why it should be, going deeper into the importance of this social perspective. In this case, it is integrated into a section on the use made of technology and its explanation to students. In most cases, the competencies only highlight the need to teach some guidelines on how to make a responsible use of technologies, by deepening the dangers that this can give. However, technology has a social character depending on the way it connects us all and the information it manipulates. Due to this algorithm, not everything that is presented to us is neutral and this notion is one that the teacher should refer to when talking about its uses.

-Infographic: It is a type of complex diagram that offers a more visual support for the explanation of any type of information.

When presenting our work, we were asked to carry it out as an infographic. Unlike the rest, the infographic offers more customizable aspects that serve to offer other communication media, such as visuals to facilitate the understanding of the specified content. By knowing characteristics of this type, we are given a greater possibility to improve our explanations according to the type of case that arises.

THOSE WERE ALL THE FIVE CORE CONCEPTS!

These have been the elements that I would consider key to summarize our understanding of the content during the task. Of course, we have had our difficulties in reaching these conclusions. Precisely, these types of aspects are what we have to consider, to try to avoid those difficulties that may hinder us in the future. These difficulties could be summed up in the lack of organization that existed. Although considering the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is normal to think to come up with these methods. That is, divide the work and communicate ideas by messaging, instead of holding a meeting for teamwork that is usually more common. The downside of doing it this way is that if we are clear about the task, it is complicated to carry it out due to communication limitations. Being that other weakness due to the lack of understanding about what was required of the task, even asking other groups.

However, thanks to guidelines from our facilitator and more members always discussing what to prepare, we were able to achieve it. For this reason, I would try in the future to avoid reaching these measures for the implementation of the project, but the few possibilities of each one would be impossible to reach a better agreement.

So, this is it. I think for the last week, I could come up with a very good explanation for teachers’ digital competencies due to the diverse reflections related to the concepts and how to apply them in the educational context.

Thank you very much for your visit!