DIGITAL LIBRARY
NEW TECHNOLOGY AS A FUNDAMENTAL TEACHING TOOL: AN EXPERIENCE FROM SECONDARY EDUCATION
1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid (SPAIN)
2 Universidad de Cantabria (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2011 Proceedings
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 3290-3293
ISBN: 978-84-615-3324-4
ISSN: 2340-1095
Conference name: 4th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 14-16 November, 2011
Location: Madrid, Spain
Abstract:
Background
The use of new technology in our classrooms is gradually becoming an essential and inevitable tool in teaching, quite different from its former supplementary role in traditional methodology. From the various resources available, some of which became popular early on, experiences that synergistically combine a wider range of digital technology gain importance.

Objective
To describe a recent teaching experience in the context of a Geography and History class from an upper-sixth Social Sciences course with the aim of presenting its various findings and results.

Development
Firstly, a blog was created in which basic information was included, such as calendars, pupil opinions and comments, photographs of the group, forms created through Google Docs, etc. Then, we designed a website linked to the blog with photographs and videos, as well as documents with notes, along with multiple external links, including timelines and Dipity. In turn, notes and activities were sent via email indicating the availability to answer any questions raised by the pupils; we consider it advisable that, in order to enable the teacher to download, pupils’ materials should be sent openly, and not as an attachment. The use of the interactive whiteboard in the classroom showed the pupils the versatility of its features and turned them into the real protagonists.

Conclusions
A more comprehensive approach to new technology involving the exploitation of a number of technological resources in a given subject produces a positive synergistic effect for both pedagogical effectiveness and the pupils’ educational environment.
Keywords:
Educational Experience, New Technologies, Teaching Innovation.