Since the creation of the Early Childhood and Primary Education Degrees, Digital Competence has been a transversal competence in all qualifications. In recent years, in educational research on the field of technology, this competence has been transformed towards the teaching field until defining the Teacher’s Digital Competence (CDD in Catalan and Spanish). Currently, the Department of Education has launched training, evaluation and accreditation processes for the CDD of active teachers but… what about teachers in training? It is evident that there is a clear commitment by the different national and international organizations to the development of this competence with the objective of impacting our teaching performance and responding to the needs of the XXI Century and the training of teachers cannot be left out.
Recently, the Department of Education, through its digital education plan, has marked the 2023-2024 academic year as the maximum date in which the Teaching Digital Competence (CDD) must be integrated and worked specifically in the degree curricula of Primary Education and Early Childhood Education to ensure that students who complete these degrees acquire Digital Teaching Competence, at least at initial level. The Teaching Digital Competence, according to the Framework of the Department of Education, does not only refer to the development of instrumental skills with digital technologies, but also the digital look at various dimensions: didactics, organization, communication, citizenship and professional development. Currently, through the development of the CDDPla project carried out during the 2021-2022 school year, the grades of Early Childhood Education and Primary Education are adapting to the requirements to develop the CDD in different subjects. However, the teaching staff who teach in the grades must become competent digital teachers to be able to train future teachers in this skill.
According to recent studies such as those carried out in the Faculty of Noguera, Sala and Valdivia (2020) or the CODIDOE and CDDPla projects of the Faculty, they show that the teaching staff needs a digital strategy of the Faculty that allows the accompaniment of their training regarding the CDD and the consequent integration of the Teaching Digital Competence in the different subjects taught. In this sense, it is imperative to promote the development of the CDD through innovative and integrative practices of the CDD as well as to train university professors, both for those who will be able to develop the CDD in their subjects agreed in the CDDPla project, as in the rest of the teaching staff who teach subjects in the degrees of the Faculty to fulfill the needs that society today demands.
Therefore, the objectives of the BOOST project are:
- O1: To prepare innovative teaching materials for teaching with digital technologies.
O2: To implement the created teaching materials in the classroom.
O3: To propose a workshop for the teaching staff of the Faculty of Education for the incorporation of the developed materials.
To be able to achieve these objectives, we have a team of competent digital teachers who teach subjects in the grades of Infant Education and Primary Education. Considering the nature of the objectives, the team is confirmed by teachers who can export their experience. Finally, it is important to highlight that the proposal fits the purpose of the call since one of its priority lines is teaching digital competence in grades.
The expected beneficiaries are:
- The Faculty of Education Sciences, with the proposals for teaching-learning activities that promote the incorporation of digital technologies and the promotion of Digital Teaching Competence.
- The future students of the Kindergarten and Primary Education grades, given that they will receive training with teaching-learning activities that incorporate the CDD.
- The university teaching staff, based on the training offered and the use of the software and infrastructures acquired.
