Dear colleagues,
The educational act in the digital society is loaded with factors that have caused the teaching and learning process to be under continuous reconstruction. Economic, political, climatic, and sanitary variables, properly unrelated to the educational act, are determining its normal development, to the point of being able to paralyze and prevent advancement in the training of students. The current moment, in which variables outside the educational processes have caused them to have been either modified or altered in their entirety, calls for a review of everything that this has generated and will generate over the next few years. We can say that today’s students are digital. Young adults, adolescents, and children have been born in a technological era. Since first contacts with the educational system, it has been marked by digital resources. However, aspects such as e-Learning platforms such as Moodle or Sakai, tools for the development of videoconferences beyond Skype (e.g., Zoom), virtual classroom spaces such as Google Classroom, among other elements, have been incorporated into their work dynamics.
On the other hand, the educator’s role becomes vitally important in this context. There are examples of educators who are “totally digital” and others who are still anchored in traditional methodologies, far from any link with technology. The current circumstances that the education sector is going through, and that will affect its future design and development, have caused educators to change their way of thinking about teaching. Like the student, in some cases they have had to recycle their methodologies and reorient them from a digital perspective; in other cases, they have had to learn how to make video tutorials, use remote training platforms, know the ins and outs of what virtual tutoring means, design activities that are attractive to their students when the contents are tedious and that, because they do not have their presence in the classroom to motivate them, is produced from another format. In many cases, they have had to re-define their teaching strategy. Along with this, we find that this learning format has further highlighted the digital divide that already existed. On the one hand, this has provoked acts of generosity between students and teachers, but in any case, it continues to highlight that the presence of ICT in education will in some cases strengthen the differences.
On the other hand, one cannot ignore the important element of motivation in digital learning processes. The big question is, how can teachers make and stay motivated so that their students can learn? How do parents keep their children motivated to study? Most importantly, considering the student, what elements or variables make them want to continue learning and advancing in their training?
The present Issue will attempt to present how digital learning takes on special importance in the context of a global teaching and learning. Articles must revolve around the use of technological resources for virtual learning, the motivation for it, the digital divide that these situations cause, the aspect of families facing this learning, etc.
Dr. Verónica Marín-Díaz
Dr. Inmaculada Aznar-Díaz
Dr. Juana Mª Ortega Tudela
Guest Editors
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