Digital
Competencies In The Professionalization Of Teachers
Case: Ecuadorian Amazonia
Competencias Digitales En La Profesionalización
Docente Caso: Amazonia Ecuatoriana
Katty Elizabeth
Pérez Imaicela
Master's Degree in Educational Technology and Digital
Competencies.
National University of Education UNAE
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4810-6720
Franklin Roberto Quishpi Choto
Master in Regional
Development and Territorial Planning
Milagro State University,
UNEMI
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7121-7117
Erika Gabriela Quishpi Contento
Master in Information Systems, specializing in
business intelligence and big data analytics.
Milagro State University, UNEMI
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5702-3289
Jessica Caterine Robayo
Velasco
Master in Economics
Milagro State University, UNEMI
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4425-9845
In recent years, higher education has had to create
spaces that allow students to develop various competencies, among them digital
competencies. In vulnerable geographical contexts such as the Ecuadorian
Amazon, it is necessary to strengthen this type of competencies. This study
presents a systematic review of studies conducted in the last five years on the
development of digital competencies and teacher professionalization. We
analyzed 10 articles taken from databases such as Scielo, Google Scholar and Redalyc
applying criteria of inclusion of search terms in the title or abstract,
original articles where the central axis is digital competencies, teacher
professionalization, distance higher education. It was found that digital
competencies are essential in the professional development of students and
allow them to improve their skills when facing the reality of work. In the
Ecuadorian Amazon, obtaining this type of competencies becomes a challenge due
to the characteristics of the area, however,
professionalization programs such as the National University of Education
(UNAE) are designed with the purpose of contributing to the development of
these competencies in the course of their careers. In the province of Sucumbíos
alone, 498 teachers will be incorporated by the year 2025.
Key words: Digital competencies, teacher professionalization,
higher education, Amazon, online modality, Ecuador.
Resumen
La educación superior en los últimos años ha
tenido que generar espacios los cuales permitan que los estudiantes desarrollen
varias competencias, entre ellas se encuentran las competencias digitales. En
contextos geográficos vulnerables como es la amazonía
ecuatoriana, es necesario fortalecer este tipo de competencias. En este estudio
se da a conocer una revisión sistemática de los estudios realizados en los
últimos cinco años sobre el desarrollo de competencias digitales y la
profesionalización docente. Se analizaron 10 artículos tomados de bases de
datos como Scielo, Google Scholar
y Redalyc aplicando criterios de inclusión de los
términos de búsqueda en el título o en el resumen, artículos originales donde
el eje central sea las competencias digitales, profesionalización docente,
educación superior a distancia. Se obtuvo que las competencias digitales son esenciales en el desarrollo profesional de los
estudiantes y les permite mejorar sus habilidades al momento de enfrentarse con
la realidad laboral. En la amazonía ecuatoriana
obtener este tipo de competencias se vuelve un desafío debido a la
caracterización de la zona, sin embargo, programas de profesionalización como
el caso de la Universidad Nacional de Educación (UNAE) están diseñados con la
finalidad de aportar a que se desarrollen estas competencias en el transcurso
de su carrera. Sólo en la provincia de Sucumbíos para el año 2025 son 498 los
docentes incorporados.
Palabras
clave:
Competencias digitales, profesionalización docente,
Educación superior, Amazonía, modalidad en línea, Ecuador.
Introduction
The Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation
(SENESCYT) presented strategies for Higher Education in the Ecuadorian Amazon
(2018-2021) with the aim of strengthening existing capacities in public higher
education institutions, in this sense, student teachers who are in the exercise
of the role of teacher but do not have a bachelor's degree, are part of the
public called professionalization teachers.
The National University of Education has a professionalization program,
which allows teachers in the Amazon to acquire their university degree through
distance education. In higher education, students and teachers agree that it is
important to develop students' employability competencies along with academic
knowledge and skills (Garcés, 2020b).
Among these competencies are digital competencies, which are essential
for citizens to actively participate in a digitally advanced society
(Silva-Quiroz and Rioseco-Pais, 2025). Students
throughout their third level training use various technologies, which allows them to develop skills, which impact their digital
competencies (European Commission, 2019).
In Ecuador and specifically in the Amazon, it is important to address
the issue of the development of digital competencies in higher education, since
there is a digital divide that limits the correct use of these competencies.
Methodology
Systematic review researches have the purpose of grouping the
theoretical aspect of a specific topic, analyzing the knowledge obtained
through the results that will serve as a basis for other researches (Rosário et al.,2014). A systematic
literature search was conducted in academic databases such as REDALYC, Google
Scholar, SCIELO, with an antiquity of 5 years.
The inclusion criteria were search terms in the title or abstract,
original articles where the central axis is digital competencies, teaching
professionalization, distance higher education.
Table 1: Incidence of terms
|
Digital competencies |
REDALYC 933 articles,
Google Scholar 16 900 articles, Scielo 203 articles
(Indexed) |
|
Teacher professionalization |
REDALYC 179 articles, Google Scholar 5 920 articles,
Scielo 32 (Indexed) |
|
Distance higher education |
REDALYC 167 articles, Google Scholar 3 070 articles,
Scielo 10 articles (Indexed) |
The articles found were classified by criteria and only those that
contributed to the research were selected, including articles whose subject
matter contained models and strategies for teacher training and the Ecuadorian
Amazon, ending with 10 articles.
Results
Distance education is defined as a technological communication system
that facilitates bidirectional and multidirectional interactions, eliminating
time and space barriers by making learning possible anywhere (Cruz et al.,
2023). For Ballesteros et al. (2021) this modality "distributes study time
in a more flexible way than face-to-face and offers a more intense and
interactive educational process in the sense that it provides more time for
teacher-student relationships" (p.74).
Distance education involves the learner taking responsibility and
self-discipline, which makes it especially suitable for higher education where
participants go voluntarily (Bailey et al., 2020).
In recent years, Higher Education institutions have had to reconsider
and reorganize their academic priorities and objectives, focusing on the
implementation of new digital competencies. According to Prendes-Espinosa
(2022) they are summarized in 4 axes: the role of the university itself, the
redefinition of the teaching and learning process, the training of teachers and
students, and the establishment of objectives especially oriented to social
responsibility. Figure 1 shows in detail what the author mentions.
Figure 1: Challenges of Higher Education
Source: ElaSource: Own elaboration based on Prendes-Espinosa (2022, p.25).
González-Zamar et al. (2020) indicate that it
is essential for students to obtain the necessary digital competencies in the
teaching and learning process in order to deal with information, communication,
content production, security and problem solving in their professional future.
In particular, in the higher education scenario, the virtual or distance
mode is supported by virtual platforms, technological tools, social networks
and models that use ICT as part of teaching strategies. The students that are
part of the mentioned educational level, under the distance modality, acquire
formally or informally, digital competences in their training.
ICTs are a support tool that offers a wide range of integration to
Distance Education (DE); among them are: Virtual Teaching and Learning
Environments (VLE) that are the means of communication between the teacher and
the student through sending and receiving activities, messages, forums and
chat; video platforms that allow synchronous meetings and other applications.
At the same time, ICTs in EaD play a fundamental role
if they are used as a resource and strategy that favors the development of
digital competencies.
Challenges for the development of digital competencies in professional
teachers in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The Amazonian context of Ecuador is not homogeneous, but diverse, plural
and complex. Each people and nationality has its own expressions, customs and
realities. That is why it is a challenge to meet all the educational needs that
arise.
The World Bank Group (2020) indicates that in "Latin America and
the Caribbean, only 30% of children from low socioeconomic level (SES) families
have access to a computer, compared to 95% of children from high SES
families" (p.14). Based on these figures, it is a challenge to promote
virtual education in an isolated territory where there is a lack of many things
such as internet access, electronic devices or knowledge about the use of
virtual teaching platforms.
Diaz (2022) mentions that the UNAE support center has 314
teacher-students belonging to Morona Santiago, "80% have a laptop, 70%
have a cell phone that has access to social networks and messaging applications
such as Facebook, Youtube, Messenger or Whatsapp. At work sites or at home only 60% have access to
the Internet, while 40% must go out to strategic areas to carry out synchronous
and asynchronous processes with teachers" (p.86).
The digital divide, as mentioned by Gutiérrez-Provecho
et al. (2021), extends where there are not certain structural circumstances
that favor not only the technical mastery of the devices, but also the mental
openness to other realities brought about by the simultaneous, synchronous and
horizontal modalities of the digital world.
This is why Ramón and Dumaguala (2024) report
that "the conditions evident in the Amazon region present challenges for
teacher training and practice due to the geographic dispersion of communities,
cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as the lack of access to educational
resources (p. 45). These challenges have contributed to differences in quality
and access to education compared to other regions of the country.
The teachers who teach in the Amazonian territory do not have a
continuous training program that allows them to be trained in the new
pedagogical models. And thus be able to adapt them according to the needs they
observe in the territory. Rivero et al. (2019)
explain that teacher preparation is based on establishing a link between
professional competence and their performance in social interaction according
to different contexts. That is, they must develop: digital competencies that
entail properly operating digital devices, learning and working in a digital
society.
In the province of Sucumbíos, there has been greater interest in
education due to its ethnographic, linguistic and geographic diversity, which
has motivated teachers in training to seek to improve their teaching-learning
processes (Ramón and Dumaguala, 2024).
Mantilla-Falcón and Lozada (2023) explain the reality
of Amazonian teaching in the province of Sucumbíos, by means of a survey of 225
teachers where they obtained the following results, which are shown in Table 2:
Table 2: Level of education of
teachers in Sucumbíos
|
Instruction |
Teachers |
% |
|
Baccalaureate |
29 |
12,89 |
|
Technologist |
28 |
12,44 |
|
Third level |
161 |
71,56 |
|
Fourth level (Postgraduate) |
7 |
3,11 |
|
Total |
225 |
100 |
Source: Own elaboration based on Mantilla-Falcón and Lozada
(2023).
Mantilla-Falcón and Lozada (2023) conclude
that "25% of teaching professionals have high school and technologist
level training; however, by the year 2019 this level of instruction is already
considered as a third higher technical-technological level. On the other hand,
education professionals with postgraduate degrees represent only 3.11%; this
may be due to several factors such as economic resources and technical
facilities to continue their training" (p.9).
Professionalization teacher training programs and strategies
The Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation
(SENESCYT) presented strategies for Higher Education in the Ecuadorian Amazon
(2018-2021) Under this strategy on June 6, 2018, Agreement No. 000019 was
signed with its Addendum No.005 of May 20, 2021, ending in December 2021. dated
May 20, 2021, ending in December 2021, whose objective was the coordination of
the process of teacher professionalization between the Ministry of Education
(MINEDUC) and the National University of Education (UNAE), for the training of
teachers of the fiscal teaching profession who do not have a third level
degree, in the career of Basic Education. Currently, 364 student-teachers are
enrolled in the province of Sucumbíos and 219 in the province of Orellana
student-teachers are enrolled in the province of Orellana. By 2025 there will
be 498 teachers incorporated in the province of Sucumbíos under this program.
UNAE's Educational-Pedagogical Model is based on educational technology
and innovative approaches that encourage active student participation and
collaborative learning. It recognizes the importance of digital and
informational competencies in the process of teacher training for the 21st
century.
UNAE's teacher training is oriented towards the integral development of
the human being that includes knowledge, skills, attitudes, emotions and values
worked through teaching-learning processes oriented towards the construction
and permanent reconstruction of knowledge, mediated by the practical component
as the backbone of teacher training that allows theorizing the practice and
experiencing the theory; giving, in addition, room for the generation of
knowledge integrating projects.
based on the realities and
school contexts that are the objects of educational research, approached with
the articulation of the substantive functions for the enrichment of teaching
with the experiences generated in the linkage, research and innovation projects
and pre-professional practices (UNAE, 2022a, p.6).
Conclusions
Distance higher education guarantees access and permanence in the
training process for teacher-students belonging to vulnerable groups. The
demand for teacher training is concentrated in provinces belonging to the
Amazon region, which have a higher poverty index. Therefore, it is necessary to
pay more attention to this group.
Universities such as the National University of Education (UNAE) offers
careers in basic education and intercultural bilingual education, under the
distance modality, for teachers who do not have a third level degree, but with
years of experience in this role. This university has implemented an
educational project that allows higher education from the territory of
teacher-students, providing the opportunity to develop digital skills that
contribute to the education of children and adolescents in their environment.
In the Ecuadorian Amazon due to its diversity not only cultural but
linguistic and due to the digital divide that is generated by not having access
to resources such as internet, a device. It has caused a digital divide
compared to other regions of the country. Therefore, the development of digital
competencies are necessary in the teaching and learning process to address with
guarantees the information, communication, content production, security and
problem solving in their professional future.
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