Abstract:

Digital technologies are affecting and transforming all aspects of our lives, such as the way we work, learn, socialize, entertain, shop, among others; generating new opportunities but, at the same time, we are facing new challenges in this regard.

Digital transformation has accelerated its own pace, bringing innovations and offering new ways to address current challenges in society. At the same time, it has facilitated access to education and training and to information resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important and necessary it is to be ready for the digital society, so, everybody can fully benefit from the digital transformation. It seems obvious to say that this also applies to the education world.

At educational organizations, self-reflection about the way schools use and integrate digital technologies in their teaching-learning processes could be an appropriate option to discuss better ways to do so. However, it is necessary to have a common reference and language to start this discussion and this can be achieved by using European frameworks for digital competences (DigCompOrg) and associated tools (SELFIE).

Results from self-reflection tools for schools' digital capacity can lead to evidence-based decisions within the school community and/or the development of an action plan for a better integration of digital technologies. Thus, it is important that the information derived from self-reflection tools is complete, accurate, and relevant. However, usually self-reflection tools do not show evidence of the quality of the information provided.

The goal is to support schools reflecting about the way they use digital technologies for teaching, learning and assessment. The school community (teachers, students and school leaders) should be able to first express their perspectives about the topic and then, discuss about potential ways to move forward in the digitalization of the education taking part in their schools.

This process involves the whole school community in discussing, in designing a strategy for digital development, implementing the strategy and monitoring this implementation.

Keywords:

Digital education, digital capacity, schools, self-reflection, DigCompOrg, SELFIE.