Hosted by , contributed by Kyriaki_Vakkou on 13 December 2022
During the pandemic, teachers needed to use digital competences for a variety of tasks they had to perform while teaching online, such as use video conferencing apps, utilizing digital tools to prepare online lessons, support students in using digital tools, etc.
Teachers participated in online training courses to enhance their digital competences. The teacher training courses weren't planned to be focused on digital competences but due to the pandemic, adaptations were needed in order to deliver the course (i.e., from physical to online trainings) and at the same time support teachers in their online teaching practice. Different tools that could be utilized during online sessions were presented, as for teachers to get a better idea of what was available and how they could incorporate online tools in their teaching. Specifically, collaborative tools were presented and used (e.g., google sheets), online tools for brainstorming (e.g., miro, mentimeter, padlet) and different presentation tools (e.g., google slides, genially, canva). For all the tools presented and used, teachers had the opportunity to experiment with them and request support from the trainers when needed. The participating teachers had different levels of digital competences and hence, the training activities were adjusted to the personal needs and prior knowledge and skills of teachers. For some teachers, this meant that they just familiarized themselves with google docs and for other teachers it meant learning a completely new tool like Miro or Graasp (authoring tool of the Go-Lab project). The training also had a component of developing a project with the students and hence, teachers were asked to:
‐ try using a couple of tools that they had never used before with the students;
‐ show students the new tools they had learned and have them use some during their project.
The training progression and the adjustment to the personal needs and prior knowledge and skills of teachers really helped to overcome a big barrier that was their fear of having to try new things. Specifically, trying out the tools first as users and then utilizing them in their projects was really beneficial, as well as the fact that the teachers tried some digital tools they weren't comfortable using before at their own pace. This type of training had a great impact because after trying the new tools within their projects, teachers felt they could also use them for peer collaboration, for creating resources and for incorporating them in their teaching practice.
Digital tools utilized during the training
Google documents: https://www.google.com/docs
Google sheets: https://www.google.com/sheets
Google slides: https://www.google.com/slides
Miro: https://miro.com/
Mentimeter: https://www.mentimeter.com/
Padlet: https://padlet.com/
Genially: https://genial.ly/
Canva: https://www.canva.com/
Graasp: https://graasp.org/