Abstract:

The COVID crises has challenged the education systems around the world. Teachers have faced the reality of switching to online learning overnight and to activate critical skills - using technology in a full-time schedule of classes. Although the digital competence is a key competence and one of the literacy forms for more than a decade at the EU level, reports have shown (including the recently issued EU Education and Training Monitor) a rather slow increase in digital competences of teachers, together with the ICT use for teaching and learning. With the 2020 COVID crises and the shift to online schooling, there is an unprecedented usage of ICT in education, a massive request for online and open resources, an increased communication among teaching communities to share educational resources and practices to face the everyday and long term expectations towards quality teaching and learning in this new educational environment.

The paper will analyse the teaching profession in regard with the ICT and digital competence development of Romanian teachers in the pandemic context of online learning, respectively, the progress of the digital skills within the past 6 month. The basic assumption is that COVID crises, as a disruptive event, accelerated the learning of digital competences among senior professionals to face the educational challenge and to respond to the formal professional requirements. Although it may seem an up-skilling approach on teachers' competences, the study will show that the open attitude towards digital competence development previously to the pandemic supported and accelerated ICT skills acquisition, which was reflected in a rather positive self-assessment of their use both during the school lockdown and post-pandemic.

Keywords:

Digital skills, competence, teacher training.