SOME REFLECTIONS ABOUT THE TEACHER'S TRANSITION TOWARDS E-LEARNING

In this paper we present some thoughts about the transition process faced by the teacher when integrating ICT in the classroom, especially in the work with b-learning strategy, given that relationships between students, teachers and contents in this model have different characteristics to those established in the traditional classroom.

We also review those aspects of traditional teaching that remain in online teaching, those which need to change, and those that didn´t exist and have to be added as a new element for teaching practices.

Additionally we present some reflections arising from our experience in working with academics from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) who are in the process of implementing an educational model for the integration of digital technologies in their practice. We present this teacher training project in the context of the h@abitat puma program of the Department of Information Technology and Communication (DGTIC)of the University.

For three years we have been training high school, college and degree teachers at the UNAM in the educational use of information technologies, through a 6 months diploma and other especialized courses. Our working philosophy is “to learn by doing” . We introduce this model in the training by learning the use of ITC tools not as an end in themselves but as tools to address curriculum contents. In every training course our teachers are requested to design learning situations with the purpose of allowing their students to use ICT tools for the work of academical contents.

Our ultimate goal is to promote in the students the development of digital skills. We have decided to accomplish this goal through the work with teachers, because with each professor receiving this training we can have impact at least in one group of students. Many teachers have actually more than one group, so by using this strategy we can achieve greater impact. Therefore with this paper we explain which ICT are used by the most qualified teachers as well as the common tasks assigned to their students. We also review the way they organize their time and schedule to work with this strategy.

Finally we reflect on the reasons why this transformation of the teacher's performance is needed, while providing some guidelines that can be of use in identifying the most important elements of the new teaching role.