Abstract:

We live in the digital age. Digital technology integrates citizens' lives in their various dimensions: private, public, and professional. The evolution of technology is accompanied by digital skills in the face of the awareness of networked globalisation that has led to transformations in the social, economic, and cultural fields. The impact of Covid-19 on the education system has been significant to the extent that it is impossible to imagine an "unblended; what we have in presence is a blended and hybrid education that combines face-to-face and remote learning and analogue and digital environments and spaces. It is within this framework that this text finds its space. Its aim is to know the perceptions of the surveyed students about digital skills in the teaching-learning process and to understand the impact of digital games on learning and classroom dynamics during the pandemic. Regarding methodology: we built a questionnaire (exclusively for this research) with open and closed questions. The questionnaire, after being validated, was applied to students from two different higher education institutions (one university and one polytechnic) located in Lisbon and from three different courses Higher Technical Professional Course in child and youth care (level 4), the Degree in Basic Education (level 5) and the Degree in Social Education (level 5). 93 students answered from a universe of 111 students (83.7%). The results show, in sociodemographic terms, that the majority are female (93.9%) against (6.1%) male, that the average age is between 21 and 25 years (62.2%) and that only 3 students over 36 years have the status of working student. This data reveals that only 3 students in this universe of 93 students entered higher education for their professional requalification. In relation to the parents' academic qualifications, this study reveals that mothers have more qualifications (Bachelor and Master) than fathers. Regarding the teaching-learning, the results show that the students, after the experience of the previous school year with remote learning, are more familiar with the technology and that they value the use of games in the classroom as enhancers of the understanding the syllabus, as a form of motivation and development of social skills and citizenship through group interaction that the game can propitiate. From this exploratory research, we can conclude that digital technologies, which were used as resources to support the teaching-learning process, became, with the pandemic, a main artefact of remote teaching. In line with several authors, teachers and students will no longer be the same after the period of remote teaching. Thus, the Technologies and digital games can be re-signified and occupy an important space in the teaching-learning process in all teaching levels. This is the background to the "Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition" proposed by the European Commission.

Keywords:

Digital technologies, dDgital game, Higher Technical Professional Course in child and youth care, Degree in Basic Education, Degree in Social Education.