DIGITAL LIBRARY
ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF THE ACQUISITION OF ICT COMPETENCE IN FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE IN PRIMARY EDUCATION
Universidad de Jaén (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2011 Proceedings
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 1653-1658
ISBN: 978-84-615-3324-4
ISSN: 2340-1095
Conference name: 4th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 14-16 November, 2011
Location: Madrid, Spain
Abstract:
One of the most important indicators in the European Higher Education Area is considering learning as a lifelong activity. In this sense, ICT plays a dominant role in the education of students and professionals. ICT represents a decisive advance in innovation processes that generate and transmit knowledge, in continuing education, in the possibilities to practice autonomous learning, and in breaking space and time barriers in order to learn.
That said, we note with Adell (2011) that results show that while old courses of New Technologies were offered as common training, nowadays courses depend on each university, which results in better or worse training. If we add that teachers of teaching degrees consulted in the preparation of the White Book think that the need for "knowledge of computer science relative to the field of study" is discreetly necessary, 2.23 / 4.00, average of the choice, and the competence, "the ability to manage information," is also discreetly necessary, according to the same opinions, 2.38/4.00. We agree that teachers' pedagogical beliefs are a considerable disadvantage.
The generic competence of our concern not only deals with digital literacy, already reached by the majority of students entering the university, but also shows two new options: proper information management by students and the acquisition of appropriate training that combines teaching models to combine didactic models and to be able to implement them into digital platforms. It aims to achieve a training situation in which prospective teachers successfully use a personal computer. But it is not only about acquiring ICT training for the future practice of the profession. ICT skills are necessary to communicate with teachers during tutorials, to access blogs or participate in seminars away from their universities.
ICT offer students first-rate resources for expression and communication, for the access to sources of information such as document and data filing for presentation tasks, for learning, research and for cooperative work. Its use is related to planning and organizing, reflexive thinking, written communication, adjustment to the environment and innovation, among other competences.
In the present communication we show an exploratory and descriptive study to see what level of knowledge students who begin the first year of undergraduate degree in Primary Education have of digital literacy, management and use of ICT to collect, file and select the most suitable information. In the same way, it is also interesting to know the level of ICT competence acquired by the students before starting these university studies to determine if students of the Teaching School of Úbeda have a reasonably homogeneous level, or on the contrary, their levels are very different and unbalance the group. Finally, we try to find out whether certain demographic variables affect the evaluation level of ICT competence of new students, depending on the options considered by them. Thus, we consider it necessary to determine whether students differ in their level of ICT competence taking into account the fact of being male or female, the age at which they completed their secondary education, the population of the locality where they reside (having more or less opportunity to be trained in ICT), the studies that gave the access to this undergraduate degree, and finally, the fact of devoting time exclusively to study or combining study and work.
Keywords:
Competition, Autonomous Learning, Teacher's Degree, ECTs.