During COVID, many teachers, educators and other trainers encountered the use of digital tools. It was the only accessible way to manage the profession. Many used digital tools for the first time. The leap to digital teaching was practically overnight. Yet, nowadays 55% of teachers have tried hybrid teaching!
Digi Teachers Working Online project started with a survey about teachers’ digital skills. An online training module, which is based on the survey and DigCompEdu, will be built during the project.
We conducted 200 surveys in four different countries (Italy, Germany, Finland, Spain). 40% of all respondents are in the age of 40-49 years and half of them are job coaches. They work with adults, young adults and teenagers. They feel most comfort when using digital resources such as MS Office and online meeting platforms. In all countries the common digital materials in the classroom are video, pictures, presentation, and audios. The respondents are capable to make presentations, work sheets and images.
We found out that all staff in pedagogical field must improve the knowledge for the following digital tools: MS office, virtual campuses, general pedagogical methods, e-activities, learning new apps, new trends, flipped classroom, gamification, building online course, and editing teaching videos.
For pedagogues the most important things about using digital tools are to learn how to improve teaching, how to access new tools, how to improve evaluation activities, how to use versatile tools, how to widen toolkit, how to integrate the various tools to create personalized teaching material, and how to prepare for accelerating digital evolution and continue updating skills.
In addition to the most important factors mentioned above, it is very important for educators to pay attention to their learners. Especially they should understand what are the steps to bring digital knowledge closer to the users with disabilities. There should be guidance for those who are still learning using digital tools. It is also very important for pedagogues to enquire knowledge of how to create stimulating and interactive activities and make interaction between the learners. It will be very useful for the pedagogues to know how to use different platforms and to build online courses by themselves.
Text: Sara Mihin/Arbeit und Bildung
