NEW TECHNOLOGY IN SECONDARY EDUCATION: KEY CONSIDERATIONS IN TEACHER INDUCTION

Background
Teacher knowledge and application of new technology in schools has gradually gone from being an exception to being an educational necessity. As pupils are now thoroughly familiar with this technology in every aspect of their socio-educational interaction, the adoption of this new methodology has become inevitable as a way of optimising resources to improve pedagogical effectiveness and adaptation.

Objective
Based on our accumulated teaching experience, we have summarised the points that we consider essential for an appropriate process of implementing new technology in the secondary school teaching context with the aim of facilitating the adoption of the methodology by teachers in the induction stage of their careers.

Development
As in all teaching, a prior clarification of the objectives and competencies of the specific subject in question is required. In recognising that the application of new technology is not merely a matter of formal innovation or digital competence, we believe that it is important to be aware of its inherent limitations, such as the absence of the verbal and non-verbal communication that is characteristic of traditional teaching and learning, which must be incorporated to compensate for the shortcoming. We also stress the importance of an essential objective of education, which must be considered when applying new technology, consisting of educating within a more profound structure of thought following the traditional concept of “learning to learn”. In connection with these foundations, we propose a set of criteria that we can graphically summarise through the following principles: “virtue can be found in the golden mean”, “good taste lies in simplicity”, “the limits of my language are the limits of my world”, “what is not practical, should never be beautiful”, “technique is the effort to save effort. Moreover, with respect to the specific technical steps to carry out in general, we propose creating a Word document containing a list of all of the materials that the teacher plans to use with the aim of creating any digital format at a later stage (digital magazine, power point presentation, etc.). Later, after converting the material into a PDF format and before sending it to students via email, it is preferable to use two systems: personalised sending by email through Dropbox or other free software systems that enable the material to be viewed publicly on a website or blog. Furthermore, the use of all existing interactive resources, such as digital whiteboards, should be explored and exploited, and not avoided, with the aim of encouraging pupil creativity and involvement.

Conclusions
Adapting to new technology in the classroom is a necessary and gradual learning process for the teacher, leading to improved use of such resources in his or her teaching.