Abstract:

The pandemic crisis demanded, on a global scale, that schools and universities bet on Technologies and, consequently, on the development of digital competences. In Portugal, it is essential to empower the youth population especially when, according to the Digitalisation Index, only 20% of users [in Portugal] have basic skills and 12% advanced skills" which puts our country "below the European average" (DGEA). Faced with this skills deficit, it is important to give new meaning to education and reinvent educational models and processes. In this sense, Covid-19 also meant an opportunity to (re)think the education of the future in the post-pandemic, contributing to the digital transition one of the essential instruments of the development strategy of Portugal according to the new framework of the European Union Cohesion Policy. It is therefore important to "invest, more and better, at the digital level in people and their qualifications, during the academic and professional path, through a strong investment in training, education and science" (Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 30/2020). The pandemic moment in which we live is therefore challenging and enriching for pedagogical practice.

Thus, the objectives of this communication are the following ones:
i) to compare the profile and the degree of satisfaction of the course of students of a degree in Social Education and a Higher Technical Professional Course in Accompanying Children and Young People;
2) to understand the positive and negative impact of remote teaching on these students;
3) to compare the mastery of digital, cognitive and emotional skills of the students involved in this study.

As methodology, we constructed, validated and applied a questionnaire: to students of the Degree in Social Education (N=44 with 39 female and 5 male students) and to all students of the Higher Technical Professional Course in Accompanying Children and Young People all female (N=16). This is an exploratory study and a purposive sample. We carried out a simple statistical analysis for the closed questions and used content analysis for the open questions (Bogdan).

The results show:
i) the students attend different degree courses (level 4 and level 5);
ii) the students consider that there has been an improvement in the use of digital resources and that these are privileged instruments in the teaching-learning process;
iii) students see remote teaching as a generator of isolation, stress, fatigue;
iv) they see remote teaching as a facilitator of economy and time management.

We conclude that students prioritise face-to-face classes as a privileged space for learning syllabus contents and developing emotional, social and cognitive skills. Remote teaching classes contributed to the empowerment and digital inclusion of students and paved the way for blended and hybrid education, and for the harmonisation of environments and spaces (analogue and digital) in the educational field.

Keywords:

Higher Technical Professional Course in Accompanying Children and Young People, degree in Social Education, digital literacies and competences.