The aim of the article is to highlight the key elements related to the implementation of new technologies in education from the perspective of the opinions and experiences of educators in the field in Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, Poland, Turkey, and Uruguay. The text compares issues related to attitudes towards the use of new media in education, experiences with different forms of e-learning, and the level of restrictions on the use of smartphones in school. These variables are juxtaposed with the self-assessment of digital competence and how cyberspace is used. The survey was conducted using a standardised survey questionnaire translated into the relevant national languages in the first half of 2019, and involved a sample of 873 teachers representing eight countries. On the basis of the pilot studies it was noted that: 1) Teachers from LAC and EU like to use digital media - this is a constant trend independent of geographical location; 2) Teachers note that new technologies are not always better than analogue didactic aids; 3) Teachers from selected countries (the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Turkey, and Uruguay) have much greater techno-optimism in themselves than teachers from Bolivia, Poland, Finland and Turkey in terms of the impact of ICT on student motivation and engagement; 4) In all countries teachers prefer free online courses (the different forms of e-learning are used most often by those in the Dominican Republic, and the least often in Bolivia and Poland); 5) In each country teachers who highly value their own digital competences and have a positive attitude towards new media use ICT much more actively; 6) There is also a global trend in that the extensive use of cyberspace (typical e-services) appears in combination with the extensive use of various forms of e-learning; 7) Teachers from Ecuador are most likely to want to ban the use of smartphones in schools. The most liberal approach in this respect is taken by the Uruguayans; 8) The knowledge of the conditions related to restricting the use of smartphones goes beyond the analyses related to the style of use and attitude towards new media. This article is the result of pilot studies conducted within the framework of the SMART ECOSYSTEM FOR LEARNING AND INCLUSION project carried out in selected Latin American, Caribbean (LAC) and European (EU) countries.
Several initiatives have made available open educational resources, offered through educational platforms, aiming to achieve a broader audience, thus having the opportunity of democratizing knowledge. However, accessibility aspects in these resources still have many gaps. One is how to help teachers to prepare curricular contents available to all students, regardless of their limitations and disabilities. In this sense, this paper presents a digital ecosystem architecture, called SELI, that is being developed by a group of eleven European and Latin American countries. This ecosystem aims to provide an accessible learning environment and its contents, besides proper authoring tools based on recent technologies such as Blockchain, microsites, and universal accessibility guidelines.
In support of an open ecosystem for lifelong and smart learning, this study evaluates the perception of educational stakeholders such as pre-service teachers and blockchain developers about the feasibility of the blockchain technology in addressing the numerous gaps in the implementation of smart learning environment. This research was designed within the international project, Smart Ecosystem for Learning and Inclusion (SELI). A total of 491 preservice teachers and 3 blockchain developers from these countries participated in the study. The study data was collected from a questionnaire and interview. Descriptive statistics and content analysis was performed on the collected data. Results from this study indicates that Blockchain technology in the educational field is rarely known, and the frequency of use is quite low. The pre-service teachers surveyed, for the most part, are unaware of the degree of effectiveness of blockchain technology in education. Blockchain developers are of the opinion that Blockchain is still new to many people and resources for education based application are very rare, even if it is there, yet not many are open-source.
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