Abstract:

Due to the confinement derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, in the educational field, which forced to go from one day to the next, from the face-to-face modality to the distance modality or also called "emerging distance modality", in this drastic change, we did not know if the teachers, students, administrators, had or not, one or more of the following elements: good internet interconnection, the necessary technological equipment, the required software, teacher training in the field of distance education, students with self-management skills, among other elements.
In this stage of emerging education, much of the educational success is attributed to the teacher, especially to his training, since it has been considered that, without him, classes could not be taught, especially in the educational field of distance education. Another key element for educational success was considered having or not having Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), among other elements. Almost two years after this experience, it is important to evaluate these experiences.
Although each educational level has its particularities. So, what element had a decisive weight for educational success during the pandemic? This paper presents the results of research that aimed to identify whether it was teacher training or educational innovation and creativity that helped overcome this emerging educational stage, in the field of postgraduate studies.
This paper presents the results of a broader investigation, carried out in a Mexican Higher Education institution: the National Polytechnic Institute, research project SIP 20210618, which analyzed from a qualitative methodology (qualitative interviews applied to teachers), the opinion of teachers of the Center for Economic, Administrative and Social Research (CIECAS), where master's classes are taught, about their experiences and challenges to overcome in this period of emerging education due to Covid-19. For this analysis, we rely on the trends of the ecological learning environments (complex environments) and connectivism theory (Siemens).
CIECAS has 44 teachers, has 4 programs of master's degrees, and one PhD. Key informants were selected after applying the Google Forms questionnaire to identify the most representative cases of educational innovation. The qualitative interview was applied to 9 teachers. The interview sought to identify 5 major areas: 1) Technical resources, 2) Teaching resources, 3) Skills, 4) Obstacles, 5) Expectations.
Among the main results, teachers considered that technologies were very important, like teacher training, but it was more important to use creativity and innovation because of the diversity of complex scenarios, is necessary to generate technical, didactic, and digital skills. They identified various obstacles, but also various ways of solving them creatively, making nodes of interconnection between their peers, their students, and social networks, in addition to now valuing the importance that current generations require to develop students' self-management skills to meet their own knowledge and work needs. All teachers expressed their concern about the return to face-to-face classes because, although they observed certain advantages in the distance system. Thus, in today's complex and digital environments, the challenges cannot be overcome without a comprehensive approach that takes advantage towards the generation of new educational paradigms in the digital age.

Keywords:

Innovative strategies, training, teachers, distance education, Covid-19, complex environments.