Teachers’ Beliefs about the Role of Digital Educational Resources in Educational Practice: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies and Digital Educational Resources have undergone a rapid evolution and have been swiftly introduced into educational contexts. Teachers play a key role in integrating these technological resources into the classroom. The objective of the present study was to determine the value that teachers attribute to digital resources in their educational practice. Based on a qualitative methodology, the necessary information was obtained via an open-ended interview, in which a Spanish school’s Early Childhood and Primary Education teachers participated. The results revealed that teachers value the integration of digital resources into the classroom, though no consensus was reached as to the suitable level of integration. Use satisfaction was mainly related to student motivation. Certain problems or limitations also came to light, however, linked to students’ digital training. An important conclusion according to the perception of teachers is that the integration of digital resources in their educational practice was significant and improved the quality of the educational process.

Digital Content Creation Tools: American University Teachers’ Perception

“…Moreover, they consider these materials as an essential part of the didactic action, although the opinion about whether they increase student motivation or performance is divided. This result is common to other studies [3,6,10,[12][13][14]25,26]. In general, university teachers feel prepared for the irruption of the digital era in higher education in terms of their own digital and digital-teaching competencies [16], but also as trainers of students who have to develop professional digital competencies in the different fields of working life [27,28].…”

“…However, the effectiveness of this development can only be assessed by evaluating the teachers' perception of the use of DCC tools and the teaching results obtained in the classroom on concrete actions [7][8][9]. In this area, it has been found that the positive perception of the use of DCC tools in the classroom by teachers does not always coincide with the real capacity of teachers to adapt their programs to the virtual classroom with digital resources [10,11]. This deficit in the development of digital competence seems to be greater when we refer to the creation of digital content [12,13].…”

Ethical issues of the use of AI-driven mobile apps for education

“…We are leaning more toward human-controlled artificial intelligence, but technology is evolving so rapidly that it is almost impossible to predict what machines or artificial intelligence will be able to do in a few decades. Despite this, as long as stakeholders raise and discuss potential problems, AI ethics should be able to come up with relevant solutions to the looming problems posed by human interaction with AI ( 31 ).…”

Teachers' informal learning characteristics in using open educational resources in relation to their innovative work behavior

“…The use of OER in education will continue to grow in the coming years (Pelletier et al, 2021), especially since UNESCO has called for OER to be used to promote learning and knowledge sharing (Butcher, 2015). Teachers' integration of OER in teaching becomes significant and enhances the quality of education (Alberola-Mulet et al, 2021). Teachers must be comfortable with the use of different kinds of online resources and how to best apply them in learning environments.…”