Spanish Reading 11/01/16

Spanish Reading 11/01/16

Read the original article here: https://goo.gl/kcqlJZ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


***ARTICLE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH***

Technology and education: a dose of realism

	In education there are two extreme views regarding the use of technology. On the one hand, they are its zealots, who has been called evangelists, and remember that an optimal integration of technology would change the paradigm of school education, focusing much more on student activity. Moreover, there are also voices that argue that technology is neither more nor less than a source of entertainment that does nothing but distract the students and their teachers, in essence: learn serious things.

	Interestingly, neither of these two perspectives seems to answer the questions a teaching professional is usually done and you basically have to do with the improvement of teaching and learning practices, and educational outcomes. For this reason, begins to take hold a new vision focused on realism: Will they these solutions "professors like me," ie professionals who not claim to be champions of technology nor staunchest protectors of the board, but simply good teachers?

	At this point you should not need to remember the reasons why you would expect that technology already has a major presence in the classroom. For starters, there are related to changes in the demands of labor markets; in fact, we know for a fact that most of the students who are now in the classrooms of the ESO will work in technology and technological knowledge will be capital. Secondly, there is the question of the digital divide. That school is still a very important bastion. Third remember once again the disservice that concepts such as digital natives make to education to assume, erroneously as demonstrated empirically in many occasions, that the mere fact of being skilled in handling of certain devices, applications or services are automatically mature in terms of required skills and values ​​and responsible uses of technology. Where, if not in school, you can learn to responsibly manage information and transform it into knowledge? Where can you learn to cooperate and not to plagiarize?

	In any case, it is undeniable that digital technologies are integral part of the school landscape: 93% of pupils aged 15 OECD attend a school where they have access to a computer and almost the same percentage (92, 6%) also have access to the Internet. Spain is, in this sense, slightly below the average (90%), but certainly with a negligible figure.

	Nevertheless, when data about school technology uses an extremely complex picture emerges are discussed in detail. On the one hand, the percentage of students 15 years of age in OECD countries using at least 60 minutes a week in the classroom computer is always less than 4% in all of them and barely reaches 1.7% if the area of ​​mathematics. And it is these same students who, by 50%, almost daily use technology to do their homework ... at home. Moreover, more than 75% of teachers use the computer almost daily to prepare their classes or to perform administrative tasks, not to mention private uses, when hardly uses it in the classroom.

	In this complex reality there who does extremely simplistic readings, either to denigrate investments made or, quite simply, to send a message of distrust toward school and teachers, who are required a Herculean effort paradigm shift . However, the complexity of the data requires a good dose of realism: what works in technology and education are solutions that allow you to perform school work more efficiently. This explains why, for example, students use massive technology for schoolwork, but still, as many are, digital orphans of any educational influence on this matter, confuse efficiency with plagiarism or dispense with any effort of critical processing the -reason more information to re-emphasize the importance of the school in this ámbito-.

	And this same quest for efficiency also explains why teachers find optimal solutions that technology offers them to prepare their classes or better present content in the classroom, but not yet to change their teaching methods. Most likely the technological solutions proposed are not convincing enough for the vast majority of "teachers as" probably because the effort required for its adoption is not sufficiently rewarded, not by the system as incentives for career or by the results, since the form and content of what is now evaluated not yet correspond to the expectations and needs of society and the knowledge economy.

	Data on the intensity and variety of uses of technology in the classroom do not transmit the image that might be expected from the school of the knowledge society. The analysis of best practices in technology and school shows that one of the most important factors is the marriage of teacher professional commitment, with a favorable institutional framework and school leadership to support him. If you really want the best practices spread, the school system as a whole must be permeable to systemic innovation; ie must have tools to look realistically at what tasks or what problems teachers may be appropriate technological solutions that improve the efficiency of school work or simply make it even more interesting.

	Perhaps the so desirable revolution in the paradigm of school education still late in arriving, but the school and many teachers, like students, are moving: they have put their trust in a technology solutions that allow them to work more efficient. And in the case teaching, this work is now to find ways to allow students to learn more, better and probably different.