And COVID-19 transformed the educational system: reflections and experiences to learn

Abstract

The situation created by COVID-19 has had a strong and traumatic impact on the educational system of all levels, moving face-to-face classes to virtual ones at a distance. Information and communication technologies have had great significance in this process. This technology-mediated learning has had relevant consequences regarding how teachers give their lessons, how students interact in that context, and how school tasks are carried out. The difference in student access to technologies has had implications, one of them being the widening of the social gap. And from this situation we must learn about a series of variables that have made the process difficult: the training of teachers and students in terms of their digital skills, the significance assigned to different technologies, the need to make technologies available to students to avoid a deepening of the digital divide, and the need to transform the functions of the teacher as well as the conception of the teaching-learning process. Virtual learning is here to stay and emphasis must now be placed on the commitment, effectiveness and empowerment of reflective practice.