Abstract:

Over the last few years, and especially as a result of the global pandemic, the use and access to technology by teachers and students has skyrocketed. Schools use new tools to support teaching, learning and interaction (Rosenberg et al., 2018), facilitate teachers’ professional development (Lantz-Andersson et al., 2018) and promote online school-related conversations with parents and other audiences (Kimmons et al., 2018). This, together with a significant increase in the daily and regular use of technology in people's daily lives, has increased the need for teachers to be updated in digital technologies for their teaching practices.  

Until now, priority has been given to teachers’ acquisition of technical skills, learning to use technology and teaching software. But it is also important to encourage teachers’ critical technological learning because it has a great impact on more truthful digital teaching. Due to this background, the three-year DETECT project (2019-2022) funded by Erasmus+ KA2 focuses on supporting educators with developing critical digital literacies through a range of activities and intellectual outputs.
 
This project tries to answer questions that are relevant for teachers, such as:
- How would they handle fake news with high school students?
- How to address the issue of cyberbullying during primary school?
- What activities can be prepared to deal with digital identities and mobile phone addiction with students?
 
In order to answer these questions and many others related to critical issues of educational use of digital technologies, the DETECT project has developed a Critical Digital Literacies Framework, a toolkit with several resources for teachers and a Self-organized Learning Environment for Teachers (SOLET). This last product, which is the focus of this work, consists of an open online course that gathers all the mentioned project results delivered in a series of activities and resources that are conceived in challenge-based learning. 
 
This study highlights the possibilities of the SOLET as a teachers' training resource that can help them to improve their practice of ICT through a critical lens. It provides several self and peer-assessment activities to promote discussion between teachers, principals and institutions on the concept of digital competences and the path they should take from now on.  

References:
[1] Rosenberg, H., Ophir, Y., & Asterhan, C. S. C. “A virtual safe zone: Teachers supporting teenage student resilience through social media in times of war” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 73, 35–42, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.011
[2] Lantz-Andersson, A., Lundin, M., & Selwyn, N. “Twenty years of online teacher communities: A systematic review of formally-organized and informally-developed professional learning groups” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol 75, 302–315 2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.07.008
[3] Kimmons, R., Carpenter, J. P., Veletsianos, G., & Krutka, D. G. “Mining social media divides: An analysis of K-12 U.S. School uses of Twitter” Learning, Media and Technology, vol 43(3), 307–325. 2018 https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1504791

Keywords:

Teachers' professional development, Critical Digital Literacies, Digital Competences.