In Peques y Más we present to López García Road, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master in Teacher and ICT Master in Education. Camino is currently developing his doctoral thesis at the University of Salamanca. She is also a collaborator of the USITE GITE educational technology research group and develops her professional activity as a Technological Guidance at the International Center for Advanced Technologies. She is also an advisor in educational technology in the Parents 2.0 association.
We met Camino recently at the event organized by Toads and Princesses in which she told us about the positive experience of using new technologies among children because they are able to learn alone, to learn quickly, to organize tasks, to share their learning with other classmates although he also indicated that digital natives run the risk of becoming digital orphans because not everyone has access to guides and mentors that teach them to take advantage of all existing options. We took advantage of the event to ask Camino for an interview in which he deepened on these points and told us many more aspects of his experience in the use of ICT in teaching.
How the teacher creates an innovation environment in the classroom with technology
Sorry to start the interview with this data, but most of the teachers do not innovate in the classroom with technology. According to an investigation called ACOT, digital competition (video) does not complete its development until after three to five years. Most of the teaching staff is in Adoption or Adaptation phase, which are the first. They still have to overcome the appropriation phase to reach the Innovation phase, which involves doing with technology something that nobody has done before. It is normal that constant innovations are still not made taking into account the short time that technology has been in the classroom and the little and poor preparation that teachers have.
Breaking molds based on tradition is not done overnight, the main barrier is mental and the increasingly defeatist attitude of teachers, drowned by circumstances.
How technologies can be leveraged in the classroom to enhance student creativity
To enhance creativity, teachers first have to make an effort to change their methodology. It is not possible to try to develop the creativity of the students with a methodology based on the homogenization and the evaluation of concepts.
The key is in the personalization of learning, in intrinsic motivation, multiple intelligences and skills development.
With all this and ICT, creativity development has no limits. The technology allows to have in the classroom all possible contexts and the possibility of both individual and collaborative development.
With ICT the development of creativity has no limits
What specific applications can the digital board have in the classroom
The digital whiteboard provides the classroom with a window to the internet. The POI consists of special software, Internet connection and the power of the computer to which it is connected. With that mix of technology, almost everything can be done. From working with augmented reality to creating video conferences with other educational centers in any part of the world that have similar technology. But the wealth is in the variety of technology, a digital whiteboard can throw the walls of the school by opening it to other environments, but it still does not accompany the students in their learning outside the classroom, which can be carried out through other technologies .
How do children respond to the use of technology, do they all do it in the same way?
No. Most of them are still in the motivation phase created by the ICT, which has to do with the novelty. Most teachers take advantage of this first motivation. But it is sterile since once this moment passes the children get used to it, and we are not trapeze artists of a circus to worry about surprising each time with ICT, because we would be neglecting the development of knowledge. The key is in a methodology appropriate to these environments, where it is no longer learned in the same way, the student being the one to surprise himself of what he is capable of doing with ICT to learn. Other students display their creativity without limits and there are other cases in which they reject the new methods, since sometimes it implies a change of role by the teacher to a guiding attitude, instead of being a data transmitter. At this point students have to work harder and many prefer to sit down to listen to a master class, it is more comfortable.
When students switch between children, primary, secondary and high school, how do you keep up the momentum of creativity and innovation?
It's very complicated. The only way to make this happen is really thanks to the coordination of the teachers at this time of change of stage. This is not usually the case, so students notice it especially. Specifically, the change is aggravated by technology, since the transition from one cycle with ICT to another that does not have technology in the classroom implies a setback in the teaching-learning methodology. The competence of learning to learn is very sensitive, since both its development and scope is very personal for each student, and the traditional methodology flees from the personalization of learning.
How the School and the Associations of Fathers / Mothers respond to the introduction of technological tools
The parents and the management of the school are always reluctant to acquire anything that is new, whether we talk about methodology or technology. It is normal since they try to be prudent, protecting their students and children from something they do not dominate. The problem of fear of the unknown is that it goes beyond this phase of protection and reaches the limitation phase, as is the case in most educational centers with the mobile phone, for example. This is usually prohibited, and they do not realize the potential in mobile learning that is being lost. I do not judge them, there is little and not adequate training in this matter in particular so that they lift the prohibitions feeling safe.
How the kids work at home what they learned in the classroom
If technology is used in the classroom and at home the student has it, what is usually done is the same as learned in class, in the same way, using ICT as taught. A really interesting question could be: How do they use ICT at home? Then I would answer that in a totally different way than in the classroom: they use social networks to share and stay in touch, share photos, videos and Internet content, open their hearts and lives to their acquaintances in the whatsapp, play, play Have fun and learn. Now, the key is to unite both environments, since we start talking about digital orphans, not so much digital natives, because of the lack of supervision and guidance that children have in this area.
How a knowledge management dynamic is generated in an educational center
Few educational centers have knowledge management dynamics, since they require a great capacity for coordination and collaborative work among teachers. Also, one of the great limitations is found in the perception of many professors that if they share an idea it will cease to have value since others will appropriate it. Ken Robinson once said: "If you are afraid of having your ideas stolen, give them away." We have much to change in the way teachers work and share so that knowledge management is really effective, especially if we want to obtain a better result through ICT. Not all teachers are like that, there are many who are in social networks that work in a different way, but in comparison with the entire teaching staff they are few and tend to be disseminated by educational centers, collaborating with each other in the network for lack of support in their physical school environments by their classmates.
What training needs exist among teachers to maximize the potential of technology use
Mainly, the technical training barrier must be overcome, that is, nothing can be done if they do not know the management of ICTs minimally. After that, it is essential to guide the training in ICT not to the mastery of certain programs as they currently happen, which provide suitcases of apps and programs as a mini-knowledge pill. It is not possible to pretend to make a textbook of ICTs, since one of its main characteristics is that they enable the personalization of learning, and if we do not take into account the context, we are carrying this. I believe that the key to making the most of teacher training in ICT is to work on their competence to learn to learn and develop their capacity for lifelong learning. In this way, they would be given sufficient autonomy to have the capacity for self-learning and it is possible for them to continue learning on the Internet beyond the training courses that can be given to them.
Teachers have to develop their learning capacity
What is the focus and objective of your doctoral thesis?
My doctoral thesis covers in addition to all my training my favorite areas of knowledge: ICT, education and the arts. With my doctoral thesis, I study how art education teachers develop collaborative networking processes, especially in social networks, using the web tools to carry out their projects. The product of my doctoral thesis will lead to a knowledge management strategy with ICT based on personal learning environments (PLE) and personal learning network (PLN) to be applied in working groups, both teachers and the world of company.
How can parents contribute to increasing children's learning at home
On the one hand, we must control our fears, that is, when we feel that something escapes us, that we do not know enough about it and that it may be dangerous for our children, before prohibiting we can: educate them and be with them experiencing both that new technology and also not stop training. The learning of our children is not only increased by ICT, they especially enhance it, but the main key is to be with them, listen to them and understand them.
I have been collaborating for years with the nonprofit association Padres 2.0, and its director, Albert Gimeno, always says that the best parental controls are parents:
Discover your child's potential, encourage him to develop it, and make him feel safe and supported.
And so far the interview with Camino López García. We thank Camino very much for the deal with Peques and More, the speed with which he has served us and his generosity in the answers. We will be very attentive to your blog, to your advice in Parents 2.0 and we hope to coincide with it in more events in which it is concerned how to facilitate the use of technology in children's learning and how we can always be attentive parents to their progress and needs
