Digital literacy for teachers in Cuban Tourism and Hotel Management Schools. Some experiences on its development

Abstract

Digital literacy for teachers has been a widely studied topic in recent years, and several studies have been conducted featuring student-oriented ICT competency models and frameworks. This research aims to develop a teacher-oriented ICT Competency Framework for Cuban Tourism and Hotel Management School instructors, on the one hand, to have reference points or criteria to make an assessment on the actual status of ICT training and, on the other hand, to provide guidelines on ICT training for teachers. The main research method for this paper was document analysis. The proposed model states that ICT training for teachers has to be undertaken on a continuous basis. Incorporating new tools into the teachers' professional environment is a critical matter to be taken into consideration for any type of teacher training model in the 21st century. Furthermore, some examples on the main courses and training sessions that are part of the Teacher ICT Training Research Project are provided. It may be concluded that a teacher-oriented ICT Competency Framework for the context of Cuban Tourism and Hotel Management Schools was attained. Keywords

Technology integration for students’ information and digital literacy education in academic libraries

“…The training of teachers' on technology needs to be continued by priorities to incorporate into the teaching profession (Avello Martínez and L opez Fernández, 2015).…”

Tourism and ICT. Bibliometric Study on Digital Literacy in Higher Education

“…This contradicts previous research that found specialization as a characteristic feature of research on literacy, and specifically on DL [9,[30][31][32]. To the results obtained in the SCOPUS database, it is necessary to add other investigations located in other databases that have served to build the theoretical framework and that contrast with the results presented because they focus on tourism, on teachers and are largely signed by the same authors [37][38][39].…”

“…From the above, it is understood that notable interest exists in academic research on the literacy of university students [1,19,31] characterized by a constant adaptation to the new demands derived from the changes experienced by the social environment, which are caused, to a large extent, by technological development [10,16,19,32]. Another feature that defines research on literacy, and specifically on DL, is its focus or specialization in specific areas or disciplines in response to the different levels of demand that professional sectors require of graduates [9,[33][34][35], including the tourist field [36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

“…However, in the evolution of tourism towards a crucial sector for the development of many countries [66][67][68], the specialization and training of its professionals have become a key factor that guarantees the competitiveness of destinations [63,69]. This is how, in the face of the professionalization and modernization of a sector in which the demand for qualified personnel is constantly growing, educational institutions have been developing study programs to satisfy this need [39,69,70]. In these programs, skills and abilities related to ICT [71][72][73][74] are essential given the impact of these tools in the associated professional field [39,63,75].…”

“…This is how, in the face of the professionalization and modernization of a sector in which the demand for qualified personnel is constantly growing, educational institutions have been developing study programs to satisfy this need [39,69,70]. In these programs, skills and abilities related to ICT [71][72][73][74] are essential given the impact of these tools in the associated professional field [39,63,75]. In this regard, the agents that make up the tourism sector question whether the training of graduates of the tourism branch is appropriately adapted to the needs of an increasingly complex and competitive work environment [76] that requires a multitude of skills and competencies [39,63,69,[77][78][79] among which those related to ICTs [63] stand out.…”