Marize Lyra Silva Passos

USE OF TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION: A CRITICAL VIEW

Marize Lyra Silva Passos

Introduction

It is evident that technology is widely used in various sectors of society, especially professional life, but its use has not yet been widely applied to education (EU, 2013). When talking about the use of technology in education, what first comes to most people’s minds is the use of digital resources, especially digital resources that are supported by the Internet.

But the term technology is much broader than that. The term technology has its etymological origin from the Greek terms tekhno (art, craft, industry, science) and logía (language, proposition). And according to the Michaelis dictionary (2020, online) it means “A set of processes, methods, techniques and tools relating to art, industry, education, etc.” or it can also mean “Technical and scientific knowledge and its applications to a particular field”. 21st century learning requires the ability to use technology. For this reason, in this chapter, emphasis will be given to the use of technology in education and, in particular, technology associated with the use of digital resources and digital competences, which are fundamental components for the promotion of full education. For, a student who is not connected and cannot deal with the digital

realm loses important chances of being informed, of accessing very rich materials available, of communicating, of becoming visible to others, of publishing their ideas and of increasing their future employability. And thus, leading to learning throughout life, which is a central challenge of the 21st century for educators, governments and educational public policies.

It is with this focus that we will try to answer two questions: are schools and teachers prepared to deal with the students of the new generations that are coming to schools? Or, more importantly, are we preparing our students for the world they will face when they leave school?

Teacher Training

In order to answer the first question, we must begin to reflect on teacher education. Today, the teaching profession faces new demands that change rapidly. This requires a new set of skills, broader and more sophisticated than previous ones.

The ubiquity of digital devices and applications requires educators to develop new digital skills and knowledge necessary for their practice. These skills include the use of technology as a means to present and facilitate the transformation of content into knowledge (DIESEL et al., 2017). To make good use of available technologies, it is necessary for teachers to dialogue with the reality of students and provide opportunities for their insertion in the current technological logic for content learning.

The use of technologies, especially digital technologies, has allowed teachers to have a broad monitoring of the teachinglearning process, allowing them to obtain detailed data from their students, which will allow them to carry out assessments and propose improvements in the teaching-learning process.

Angotti, Bastos and Souza (2007) argue that the use of technology can

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[...] point out limits and difficulties together with solutions and improvement of school practice, value making-thinking and, with it, move towards a distance from the habits of repetition and memorization. This way we are forming the scientific spirit in the action-reflection-action and concrete-abstract-concrete movements. Teaching mediated by concrete technological objects allows this movement, traveling between common sense and learning science and technology (ANGOTTI; BASTOS; SOUZA, 2007, p. 83).

So, to ensure that the teachers, in addition to using technology in their favor, are able to promote the digital literacy process of their students, it is necessary to train this new professional, since the use of resources and technologies is not enough to ensure that the student learns and uses technological resources consciously.<0} “On the other hand, it is necessary that teachers renew their pedagogical practices [...]” and have a “[...] look at this revolution, stimulating multiple learning networks, allowing a range of associations and meanings between the school and the surrounding community” (GAROFAL, 2018, online).

For the training of this new teacher, the European Union proposed the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu). This framework is built on solid science and describes what it means for educators to be digitally competent. DigCompEdu, Figure 1, is aimed at educators working at all levels of education, from early childhood to higher and adult education, including general and vocational education and training, special needs education and non-formal learning contexts.

DigCompEdu details 22 competences organized into six Areas. The focus of this framework is not on technical skills, rather, the framework aims to detail how digital technologies can be used to enhance and innovate education. This framework can serve as a basis for any country that wants to train its teachers in the use of technology in the classroom.

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Figure 1 – DigCompEdu Synthesis

Source: Based on Redecker and Punie (2017)

It is important to remember that most teachers who are in the classroom today are considered as digital immigrants, that is, those who are trying to engage in the large amount of technological innovations that are everywhere: phones, apps, ticket purchases and even banking. And, these teachers need to relate to digital natives. In addition, most teacher training courses in Brazil have not prepared or still do not prepare future teachers to deal with the use of technologies, especially digital ones, in their teaching practices. So, continuous training is relevant in this case for the adoption of technologies integrated into teaching, as it complements the teachers’ knowledge and makes them able to adapt to students’ reality (SHULMAN, 2015).

In addition, the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) determines that the use of technologies is a teaching competence, and for that, teachers need to be trained to use them in favor of the teaching-learning process. For the “[...] inclusion of digital tools in classrooms, the government needs to understand teaching practice as a transforming activity, whose role is to mediate knowledge” (GAROFAL, 2018, online). To this end, teachers need to know how

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to use computers, interactive whiteboards, tablets, smartphones and other technological equipment, both in their daily lives and to integrate them into classroom daily life. Regarding the available technologies, it is necessary to make good use of them, dialoguing with the student’s reality and providing opportunities for their insertion in the current technological logic for the learning of contents.

Angotti, Bastos and Souza (2007) remind us that the use of technology is not just a component, but that it is necessary to take into account the cultural dimension of this action, as well as the perception of society, of the citizen and their place in it, this vision places secondary education back into citizens’ lives. That’s why the importance of digital literacy being inserted in schools and teachers being prepared to deal with this new reality. Digital literacy must take into account six aspects to guarantee the whole formation of students (Information, data and content; Teaching, learning and developing; Communication, collaboration and participation; Digital identity, well-being, safety and protection; Technical Proficiency and Creation, Innovation and Research).

Certainly, the use of digital technologies in the classroom alone does not change the students’ disinterest or the teacher’s routine attitude. Technology alone does not guarantee learning. However, there is an increasing need for teachers to seek new methodologies in order to create a favorable environment for learning.

The School and Technology

Continuing the reflection provoked by the first basic question of this chapter, that is, “if the school and the teachers are prepared to deal with the students of the new generations that are arriving in the schools”, it is important to understand how schools should prepare for promoting the inclusion of digital technologies inside and outside the school walls.

One can begin to answer this question by a factor that has received little attention, which is the role of the physical layout of the classroom, in which the use of technology takes place. To better

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understand the potential impact of the physical learning environment, one must take into account how different physical classroom layouts have influenced the educational uses of technology in the school context, as it can leverage the potential of digital technologies so as to make them pedagogically more effective.

For this, the formulation of the physical space for a more contextualized and meaningful teaching based on technological resources needs to be flexible and adaptable to many forms of learning, besides the expository model. This is a recent issue in the Brazilian educational system, which, despite having already introduced innovative learning tools, it continues to produce educational spaces for traditional teaching.

But the physical change of learning spaces alone is not enough to bring about changes in the teaching-learning process supported by the use of digital technologies. Angotti, Bastos and Souza (2007, p. 79) emphasize that the school needs to take responsibility and work for a scientific-technological culture, since a school closed to the knowledge of our days, with regard to the production of science and technology, is “the very denial of what we call scientific-technological culture [...] of the structural components of our culture, science and technology have a prominent role”.

At the turn of the 20th to the 21st century, Gadotti (2000) already told us that there was an ongoing challenge for the current school and that it needed to change the logic of knowledge construction, since now learning will occupy our entire lives and the use of digital technologies in classrooms could no longer go back. About this role of the school, he goes further by stating that, “The school needs to set an example, dare to build the future. Innovating is more important than reproducing with quality what already exists. The school’s raw material is its vision of the future” (GADOTTI, 2000, p. 9).

Schools also need to change their educational culture regarding the use of media, leaving the conventional use of predominantly expository teaching models and moving to the use of media in a different way, aiming at pedagogical objectives that lead students to develop their knowledge.

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And all this must be associated with the change in the school curriculum by incorporating the use of digital technologies. But the integration of digital technologies in the curriculum cannot be limited to their insertion and/or availability in the school space. Technology needs be used at different times of the teaching process, whenever necessary and to contribute to the student’s learning process. They will not be integrated into the curriculum if teachers only use them for activities that could be explored using paper and pencil. In other words, these technologies need to be thought/used to enable students to create, fantasize, think, conjecture, have fun learning different concepts during classes in a meaningful, reflective and ethical way, integrating digital languages in activities that make up the curriculum in action.

Digital Literacy

Finally, here is a reflection on the second question that guides this chapter, “are we preparing our students for the world they will face when they leave school?”. Based on this question and with the advent of Education 4.0, at the beginning of the 21st century, the concept of digital literacy treated here focuses on meeting the educational needs of the new generations and requires the constant development of new skills and knowledge to deal with digital technologies.

In the view of Passos (2019, online) “Education 4.0 is based on the technological revolution and the “hands-on culture” (maker culture), which brings in its core computer languages, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and more powerful data networks”. The use of varied technological resources allows current education to be based on creativity and inventiveness, supported by an environment of experimentation that has the student as the center of the teaching-learning process. The same author (2019, online) states that

Although, from this perspective, digital equipment and technologies are important, they are no longer sustainable and they need to be accompanied by pedagogical practices that allow significant experiences, respecting teachers and students.

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In this new context, where changes occur quickly, collaborating, creating, researching and sharing are skills that have increasingly become part of the teaching-learning process. In this process, students, having the teacher as their advisor or coach, must develop new skills to meet the needs imposed by the 21st century, such as the ability to learn to learn throughout their lives, to work collaboratively and to know how to reflect and solve challenging problems (PASSOS, 2019, online).

These students, most of whom born in the 21st century or the late 20th century, are considered digital natives, a term coined by Marc Prensky (2001). For this author, this audience fits into the first generations that grew up living with digital technologies, such as computers, tablets, smartphones, etc. Therefore, they represent those students who effortlessly know how to use and interact with the technologies that are within their reach without hesitation or fear.

Familiarity with the use of technological resources of this new generation does not mean that they are able to use these resources to their fullest extent in the learning process. The digital world offers huge benefits and advantages for everyone. However, without the proper use and understanding of technology, the digital world can be overwhelming and even dangerous. Therefore, to ensure that children use technology effectively and safely, schools need to be concerned about the digital literacy of their students.

Digital literacy refers to the use of digital tools to create meaning and communicate effectively with others, including the ability to use visual representations, integrate different digital texts, navigate non-linear digital texts, and evaluate digital information (NEUMANN; FINGER; NEUMANN, 2017). Being digitally literate allows children and young people to become innovative, confident and responsible in the use of technologies and online safety (SCOTLAND, 2015). They need to be able to understand the technology they use so they can use it safely and effectively.

Digital literacy is not just knowing how to take a selfie, send WhatsApp messages, update Instagram or create videos on TikTok, it involves understanding technology and using it properly. This

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process involves training students to be able to browse a website, send an email or use social media safely. For Riel, Christian and Hinson (2012) digital literacy is the ability to use software and hardware technology and interpret information from digital devices effectively and efficiently in various contexts, such as the need to support academic performance, career and daily life. But, this concept can go beyond the ability to use multiple digital sources effectively, leading to a broader concept in which digital literacy is a way of thinking (hypothesis and multi-construction) the use of the digital world.

The actions described in the digital literacy process are essential for adult life, as almost all jobs involve communication through these processes. It is therefore the responsibility of the school to ensure that its students are equipped with the skills and confidence to live in this digital society. Adopting digital literacy is essential for the success of students’ academic lives and also for improving their lifelong learning.

Riel, Christian and Hinson (2012) stated that digital literacy is multidimensional and expressed in several groups of abilities, as described in Figure 2.

Figure 2 –. Concept of Digital Literacy

Source: Based on Yustika and Iswati (2020)

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As students get deeper into digital literacy, they begin to incorporate computing to solve problems. Increasingly, they apply the fundamental principles that underpin digital technologies to develop their own ideas. This allows them to update their skills based on technological advances gained from a variety of sources, including the experience of young people themselves.

Interaction in digital media does not only require technical skill to access technology, but also an understanding of the content, the active and interactive functions of message production. Moreover, interactions on digital media have consequences for personal safety, privacy, excessive consumption, differences in approach (YUSTIKA; ISWATI, 2020).

There are two caveats here, the first is that this entire process must have the student in its center and the second is that not all students born in this period have access and familiarity with the technological resources mentioned above, as is the case with students from low-income families, whether in rich, developing or poor countries. This situation became even more evident during the years 2020 and 2021 when there was a need to use such resources to support remote teaching around the world. But, despite this gap in access to technology among students from different social classes, we must not deprive these young people of the digital literacy process.

Conclusion

After the reflections made above, it can be highlighted that teachers, most of whom digital immigrants, did not develop in their initial training the digital skills necessary to revolutionize the classroom by bringing the use of digital technologies with pedagogical purposes to its praxis. In order to resolve this gap in teacher training, investment in continuing education is necessary. For this, many governments propose development need models for digital skills such as DigCompEdu. In addition, teachers also need to prepare to facilitate the digital literacy process of their students.

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But, in addition to having trained teachers, schools and governments need to support these actions. We should start by thinking about a new physical layout of classrooms that can act as a barrier or as a channel to leverage the potential of digital technologies in order to make them pedagogically more effective. The school curriculum must also reflect the importance of using digital resources to promote a meaningful education, in addition to its importance for the construction of critical, reflective and ethical citizens.

Finally, we have students who are considered digital natives, who, despite being born amid the newest technologies, are not necessarily prepared to use them for their learning to learn process and for lifelong learning. To help them, it is necessary that teachers and schools support them in their digital literacy process, in order to guarantee the formation of future critical, ethical, innovative citizens, collaborators who know how to use digital resources with proficiency and safety, not only for themselves, but also for society as a whole.

And, finally, it is important to highlight that digital technologies should not be used by students only in an aspect of “consumption”, for access to information, communication or for the propagation of information, which impoverishes the student’s experience with the technological world and puts them in a position of passivity in relation to technology, leaving aside the most revolutionary aspect of technology, which is to use it as a universal construction environment.

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