Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes

2024, Vol. 14, No. 1 e-ISSN: 1390-8146

Published by: Universidad Técnica Luis Vargas Torres

How to cite this article (APA):

Maridueña, M., Fernández, M. (2024) Digital teaching competencies

in the return to face-to-face teaching, Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes,

14(1) 46-62

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Las competencias digitales docentes en el retorno a la presencialidad

Mayra del Rocío Benavides Rodríguez

MSc. Docente Universidad de Guayaquil, mayra.benavidesrod@ug.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3295-4123

Fernando Chuchuca Basantes

Mgtr. Docente Universidad de Guayaquil, fernando.chuchucab@ug.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3643-4146

This research was conducted at the University of Guayaquil with the

purpose of knowing if the digital knowledge, skills and abilities

acquired by university teachers in the virtual modality during the

COVID 19 pandemic in the biennium from 2020 to 2022; digital

competencies that were consolidated in the four academic

quinquemestre and that are still in force in the current face-to-face

modality. To fulfill this research purpose, an approach to the teachers

of the disciplines selected for their academic development in the face-

to-face modality in the Early Childhood Education and Basic

Education Careers during the IC - 2023-2024 was foreseen, and to

collect qualitative data from this segment of teachers, which allows us

to know the truth beyond the evidence of their digital skills.

Keywords:

digital competences, face-to-face

Resumen

Esta investigación se realizó en la Universidad de Guayaquil con el

propósito de conocer si los conocimientos, habilidades y capacidades

digitales adquiridos por los docentes universitarios en la modalidad

virtual durante la pandemia del COVID 19 en el bienio del 2020 al

Abstract

Received 2023-07-19

Revised 2023-11-03

Published 2024-01-05

Corresponding Author

Mayra del Rocío Benavides Rodríguez

mayra.benavidesrod@ug.edu.ec

Pages: 46-62

https://creativecommons.org/licenses

/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Distributed under

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

2022; competencias digitales que se consolidaron en los cuatro

quinquemestre académicos y que siguen vigentes en la actual

modalidad presencial. Para cumplir con este propósito investigativo,

se previó un abordaje a los docentes de las disciplinas seleccionadas

para su desarrollo académico en la modalidad presencial en las

Carreras de Educación Inicial y Educación Básica durante el CI - 2023-

2024, y recoger datos cualitativos de este segmento de profesores,

que nos permita conocer la verdad más allá de las evidencias de sus

habilidades digitales.

Palabras clave:

competencias digitales, presencialidad

Introduction

This research originates from the importance of assessing the digital

competencies acquired by university teachers during the 2020-2022

biennium, in the social and educational isolation, adopted in the

higher education system, due to the fulminating and deadly

consequences of COVID 19 in that period, The health cause that

motivated to change the mode of study of the student population in

almost all countries of the world, and with this decision to abruptly

enter the virtual mode and continue the training processes of the

active population in the schooling levels of basic education, high

school, undergraduate and graduate.

To make this virtual training process feasible, educational institutions

carried out continuous training of their teachers and students,

although the latter proved to have closer links with technology due to

their millennial characteristics; these theoretical and practical

technological competencies were progressively consolidated as

transversal axes because they were used in the processes of

disciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and

multidisciplinary learning and study modalities.

Competencies are defined as those skills, abilities and knowledge that

a person has to efficiently perform a certain task. Competencies are

the knowledge that accredits someone to perform a certain activity in

a certain field of knowledge, which not only include theoretical

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

aptitudes, but also define thinking, character, values and the good

management of problematic situations. Retrieved from "Meaning of

Competencies". In: Significados.com. Available at:

https://www.significados.com/competencias/

This construct helps us to understand that a person who has learned

a knowledge or ability in a meaningful way, and who uses it to solve

some contextual problem related to that knowledge, can be said to

have acquired competence.

Digital competencies are a set of skills, knowledge and attitudes in

technological, informational, multimedia and communicative aspects,

which generate as a result a complex multiple digital literacy (Gisbert

& Esteve, 2011), Cited by Zavala D. et al., 2016.

Consequently, these digital competencies are generators of a series

of actions in the educational platforms of higher education

institutions, capabilities that were acquired by teachers in multimedia

training processes and that are visualized in the performance in the

virtual modality,

The Lisbon European Council defines digital competence as

"the ethical, critical and safe use of ICTs for personal, educational,

occupational and communicational purposes". Quoted by Perdomo,

B., et al. (2020).

These concepts refer not only to technological knowledge per

se, but also to the broad and correct use of these multimedia

practices, due to this deontological link in the application of digital

knowledge.

We also refer that: with the term Information and Communication

Technologies, we define the set of resources, tools, equipment,

programs, computer applications, which allow the compilation,

processing, transmission of information, such as voice, data, text,

video and images. Its use in the educational field gives rise to digital

competencies, which is synthesized in the definition: "to have skills to

search, obtain, process and communicate information, and thus

transform it into knowledge" Perdomo, B.; González-Martínez, O.A.

& Barrutia Barreto, I. (2020).

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

Digital skills, which were being incorporated into the profile of

educators through slowed training processes, are now being

vigorously resumed to mitigate the digital gap that separated us from

the first world countries, that historical distance was minimized by the

massive entry of teachers and students to the virtual contexts of the

higher education system, cyberspace and connectivity of educational

platforms, this access to technologies has grown exponentially for its

dynamism, connectivity, security, speed and versatility of its

applications.

The change from face-to-face education to the virtual classroom,

increased the consumption and urgent transmission of data, which

converge in the technological massification of the emerging virtuality

caused by the pandemic; today for university teachers of the XXI

century, this knowledge, capabilities and virtualized digital skills

linked to technology are no longer utopias, they are no longer

unattainable knowledge, and have become essential and daily

practices, because they permanently contribute to optimize the

quality of educational practice in university professional training.

Digital competencies lead a person to achieve relative autonomy in

information processing, to act responsibly, critically, reflectively and

efficiently when selecting, through the use of different technological

tools, the sources of knowledge that will nourish their educational

loop, with multiplying effectiveness when teachers are the ones who

seek and channel data for the ubiquitous, autonomous and

collaborative learning process of their students.

The aforementioned digital competencies are progressively

consolidated in the educational population in the return to face-to-

face teaching, the new public policies related to national and

institutional information and communication technologies guarantee

the development of new academic activities in a context of face-to-

face teaching with virtualization.

This aspiration, to provide the classrooms with technological

infrastructure and maintain the educational platforms and online

processes in force, will allow us to consolidate the digital and virtual

competencies of teachers and students, and is a magnificent

opportunity to improve the quality of the university educational

system, if this option is not possible, the road travelled will be diluted,

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

and the effort made by the actors of the university system to

incorporate the new technological currents to the university culture,

will have been only a utopia.

In this section we are going to make visible some data related to the

educational policies at a planetary level, which directed the

virtualization of the levels of the educational system, including higher

education; to avoid contagions and to protect the health of the

educational community; this measure facilitated the teaching

participation in synchronous and asynchronous virtual classes through

educational platforms, for both andragogic activities, an investment

in technological and virtual training of university professors under the

responsibility of the Higher Education Institutions was required.

These continuing education processes that led university professors

to acquire several digital habits and new educational practices, which

were consolidated as digital competencies of teachers, among these

practices can be mentioned, navigation and permanent search for

information in digital databases, downloading digital information and

organization of multimedia teaching materials such as videos and pdf

files, access to the institutional virtual classroom, to upload individual

and team assignments, grade and download files, participate in

cooperative and collaborative work, online management meetings

and virtual tutorials, use digital applications, dynamic communication

with students, managers and directors, daily use of institutional mail

and/or wasap to send and receive academic information, among

others, which demand a consolidated habit to move through the

platforms and cyberspace. These arguments coincide with the

approach of Velásquez O. (2019), who considers that the role of the

virtual teacher is transformed into a subject of accompaniment,

facilitation, motivation, mediator of information and knowledge,

catalyst of learning, because he/she fulfills multiple roles and

performances.

To corroborate the above, we recover the following text from IESALC-

UNESCO, 2021, which states that: in order to favor pedagogical

continuity, universities did not propose a single methodology. The

majority recommended the use of the corresponding virtual

classroom, but virtualized synchronous classes were also encouraged.

About 78% of the universities participating in the study promoted this

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

approach. The second option preferred by the universities is the use

of lectures delivered as videos, synchronously or asynchronously,

which is the case in 41% of the universities.

As can be seen in this quantitative data, the proposal of the university

system, in its two modalities summarized in previous paragraphs, had

a global acceptance by universities in 78% and 41% respectively,

modalities that demanded a digital learning and practice of their

teachers and students, to transit through the institutional platforms.

Quintana (2000), developed a model that was proposed and

implemented in Spain with the objective of standardizing the levels of

ICT competency training of basic education teachers, digital

competence is the mastery of knowledge, skills and attitudes that

allow them to effectively use ICT as a support to their professional

training and resources that facilitate student learning. Cited by Zavala

D. et al., 2016.

This proposal, implemented to improve the professional performance

of Basic Education teachers in the field of Information and

Communication Technologies, was undoubtedly more than two

decades ahead of the pandemic, and managed to substantially

optimize the training quality of these professionals and their work

performance.

In studies conducted by Rangel (2015), he describes the new role of

the 21st century teacher as that of training teachers with a set of

resources, those that allow them to interact with information,

intellectually manage the different systems and codes, read and

decode not only in a linear way but also hypertextual and hypermedia

and evaluate the information discriminating the valid and useful for

their educational, communicative and action project. Cited by Zavala

D. et al., 2016.

This proposal also has technological features, since it approaches in a

linear and transversal way all the fields of knowledge and additionally

incorporates images, sounds, videos, audios and texts that are

resources of the hypermedia current, because the vertiginous

development of virtuality contributes systemically and significantly in

the experiential learning of students, when your main senses

participate simultaneously.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

This requires investments in digital literacy and infrastructure, in

addition to strengthening linkages between the formal and informal

sectors of education" (UN, 2020). Cited by Díaz D. et. al. 2021

This state investment in continuing education, digital literacy and

technological infrastructure should be channeled by governments

through their portfolios and state secretariats, complemented by the

governing bodies of the university system, to monitor compliance

with public policies for the development of technologies in the higher

education system and progressively in other educational systems.

In such a case, there is a need for digital literacy that links schools with

society, improving the acquisition of digital competencies for

collaborative learning, autonomy, effective communication, ethics

and digital citizenship (Días -Trindade, et al., 2020; Cited by Díaz D.

et. al. 2021

This quote establishes a general link between the educational system

and society, because the national educational system trains high

school graduates for the exercise of citizenship, when the young

person reaches the age of majority, and the university system trains

professionals for the labor activity in the national socioeconomic

system, since university education has a graduation profile with a high

digital component, labor insertion has greater possibilities.

At the same time, it suggests that education systems must urgently

move towards "(...) progressive systems that deliver quality education

for all as a pathway to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

This requires investments in digital literacy and infrastructure, in

addition to strengthening linkages between the formal and informal

sectors of education" (UN, 2020). Cited by Díaz D. et. al. 2021.

This social policy direction to improve the quality of education and

insert our university system in the international context, on a par with

developed countries, provides the opportunity to improve the social

conditions of future professionals and the population in general, and

consequently improve their quality of life.

As a result, we can conclude that the purpose of this research is to

know which are the digital competences of university teachers, many

of them acquired during the pandemic, and which of these

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

technological abilities and skills they are using in the return to the

face-to-face modality, which could mean the optimal use of these

significant digital learning.

Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, has been identified as a deadly

infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, as

well as some types of the common cold. Due to its rapid spread and

the numerous deaths it has caused, a worldwide pandemic

emergency has been declared. As a result of this outbreak, the first

Movement Control Order (MCO) was issued, which involved an

Ecuadorian-wide containment.

This has had an impact on the education sector, as throughout the

pandemic crisis, schools had to close temporarily. As a result, the

Ecuadorian Ministry of Education opted for online education or e-

learning through technology or devices to facilitate communication

instead of face-to-face classroom learning.

In 1981, the Ministry of Education of Ecuador offered a course called

Instructional Systems Technology for the in-service teacher training

program in order to improve the educational system by focusing on

the teaching and learning process. Since then, many researchers have

conducted studies on the implementation of 21st century

technologies such as Virtual Reality, Gamification and Mobile Assisted

Language Learning (MALL) applications to develop and improve

students' English language learning.

In addition, online games have influenced the lifestyles of children,

teenagers and even adults around the world. Researchers believe that

the application of gamification in education would not only motivate

students, but also increase their focus on learning and their higher-

level thinking skills.

According to many researchers regarding the use of mobile

applications in language learning, this approach could also be

defined as constructive learning. For example, study results show that

the use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in the

classroom benefits students by motivating their attitude towards

learning and enhancing their learning experience.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

The concept of Virtual Reality dates back to the mid-1960s, allowing

the user to perceive the virtual world as if it were real and to act

realistically in it. Hundreds of researchers have explored the effects

and applications of this technology over the past 20 years. According

to Singhal, Bagga, Goyal, and Saxena (2012), Virtual Reality

technology has attracted public attention because it allows users to

interact with real and virtual objects, providing experiential learning

and increasing user attention and motivation at the same time.

There is evidence showing that Virtual Reality application has been

adapted in various educational sectors, such as early childhood

education and elementary schools, to teach English language in other

countries. It was shown that exposure to Virtual Reality applications

helped to improve students' motivation and their more positive

attitudes towards English language learning.

However, when teaching with technology, there are advantages and

disadvantages. Although it improves students' motivation to learn,

teachers must also consider that students may be distracted by the

content and not grasp the main ideas of the context. In addition,

despite the advancement of technology, there are still students who

do not own high-tech devices.

Virtual Reality could be considered a unique method for teaching

English to students, but it could also pose problems. For example, it

could be expensive for some students who cannot afford it. In

addition, understanding the technology, such as digital innovations,

could be a problem for both teachers and students. Lack of learning

content was the main argument among teachers, as Virtual Reality was

designed mainly for entertainment purposes. It is considered a

challenge for teachers to acquire technical skills when incorporating

this into pedagogical planning. Therefore, cognitive overload when

using Virtual Reality applications can be considered a challenge for an

effective learning environment.

According to Becta (2004), the inaccessibility of ICT resources was

due not only to the unavailability of hardware and software or other

ICT materials, but also to several factors, such as poor organization of

resources, poor quality hardware, or inadequate software. Teachers

also need to provide multiple instructions for many different devices,

as each student may possess different types of ICT resources.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

Methodology

This qualitative cross-sectional study, framed in the descriptive,

phenomenological and hermeneutic methods, was announced to

know the digital competencies acquired by university teachers during

the pandemic, through continuing education processes planned by

the institution, and applied in the labor exercise of the virtual

modality, in the semesters from 2020 to 2022, highlighting the

pragmatic and multidisciplinary value of technological skills, because

these knowledge, skills and abilities, favor the dynamics of teaching

work, using the multiple formats provided by the multimedia

environment.

In order to gather empirical information, qualitative and subjective

data on the work practices of teachers of humanistic, pedagogical,

technological and specialization disciplines, of the Early Childhood

and Basic Education careers, morning and evening shifts, who worked

in the on-site modality during the IC 2023-2024, at the University of

Guayaquil, were requested.

The selected sample consisted of 16 teachers of both sexes, who

returned to the face-to-face modality, which is equivalent to 20% of

the total number of teachers in the initial education careers and 20%

of the basic education teachers, that is, 8 teachers per career, who,

during the pandemic worked in the virtual modality and during this

cycle that has been selected as the field of study, in the face-to-face

modality.

The survey technique was used with a questionnaire of 20 questions,

related to the two categories of analysis, with a rating scale of five

quantitative-qualitative alternatives, according to the Likert model, so

that the informant teachers could choose the option closest to their

reality, according to the following alternatives, 5 = Totally agree-

Always, 4 = Agree-Almost always, 3 = Partially agree-Neither almost

always nor almost never, 2 = Disagree-Almost never and 1 = Totally

disagree-Never.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

The survey was sent and received by institutional mail and by wasap,

the digital files were downloaded for tabulation, the qualitative data

obtained in this way were processed according to statistical

guidelines, to condense, describe and interpret the empirical

responses.

Results

The double-entry table that is presented with a single visual structure,

collects in a simplified way the quali-quantitative values that the

informants assigned in the different levels of the Likert scale to each

of the 20 questions that were asked in the survey technique, the

information that was requested was related to the categories in the

contexts of the virtual and face-to-face modalities. Therefore, we have

grouped all the questions and their answers into five levels, with the

purpose of facilitating the interpretation of these data.

Total, of informants 16

DOUBLE-ENTRY TABLE WITH INFORMANT RESPONSES

¿?

Likert

Total

Prepared by Mayra Benavides Rodríguez

Source: Research data

The answers to the questions posed from the categories of analysis

linked to the focused problem and to the modalities of university work

were processed, which made the following information possible:

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

The first five questions are related to the information management

competency, which allows the user to navigate in cyberspace to

search for information and resources for interlearning sessions and at

the same time classify files by their formats, validity, updating and

reliability of sources to organize his or her personal library.

Question 1 inquired about the teacher's navigation to search for

information in digital databases during their work in the virtual

modality, a question to which 9 teachers responded with 5-always, 6

teachers responded with 4-almost always and 1 teacher responded

with 3-in partial agreement. Question 11, which requested the same

information, but during the face-to-face modality, and the answers

were 4 teachers 4-almost always and 12 teachers 3- Partially agree.

This already denotes a significant decrease in the level of online

management of teachers because they performed the same activity

with less intensity in the face-to-face modality.

Question 2 requested information related to the downloading of

digital books and pdf files for their students, during the virtual

modality, the response was 12 teachers 4=almost always and 4

teachers 3=partially agree. Question 12, which asks about the same

content, was answered by only 2 teachers with 4=almost always, and

14 teachers in the alternative 3-partially agree, i.e. there is evidence

of a decrease in this activity, which was more intense in the virtual

modality.

Question 3 requested information related to the downloading of

videos and multimedia material for their students, during the virtual

modality, which motivated the response of 13 teachers with 5-always

and 3 teachers with 4 almost always. Question 13, which inquired

about the same activity of the previous question but during the face-

to-face modality, yielded the following result: 3 teachers responded

with 4 almost always and 13 teachers with 3-partially agree, which

shows a downward trend in this information management activity.

Question 4 inquired about the organization of academic activities on

the institutional platform by teachers during the virtual modality, 11

of the teachers responded with 5-always and 5 teachers, with 4-almost

always, which shows that the teachers were in charge of organizing

the virtual classrooms; Question 14, related to the previous question

but in the face-to-face modality, the answers differ from the previous

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

ones, in this case 3 teachers answered with 4-almost always and 13

teachers with 3-partially agree, results that confirm this decrease in

the trend as in the previous questions.

Question 5 was formulated to know if the teachers used the virtual

platform to download and grade assignments, in the virtual modality,

the answers of the 16 teachers were positive, that they always used it

during the semester; question 15 is related to the same activity, but

in the face-to-face modality, 2 teachers answered with 3-partially

agree and 14 teachers with 2-almost never, answers that confirm the

tendency of less use of technological resources in the face-to-face

modality.

The five questions we analyze below are related to the Digital

Communication competency that includes among its activities the

participation in meetings with managers, tutorials with students,

training seminars through video conferencing tools.

Question 6 was formulated to know if the professors used the ZOOM

or Teams applications to participate in teaching work meetings during

the virtual modality, the answer of 12 professors was that they always

did and 4 professors, that they almost always did. With question 16,

we inquired about the level of teacher participation in work meetings

through the mentioned applications during the face-to-face modality,

12 professors responded with 3 - partial use and 4 professors with 2 -

almost never used because the meetings were face-to-face.

Question 7 was designed to analyze if the professors organized virtual

or asynchronous tutorials, with the purpose of reinforcing some

academic content, during the virtual modality, their answers identify

the almost total use they made of the technological resources, since

14 professors expressed with 5 that they always made use of those

resources and 2 professors answered with 4 that they almost always

did. Question 17 was included for the same activity mentioned in the

face-to-face modality, in this case, their reports were different, 1

professor expressed that the use of technological resources was

partial, responded with 3 of partial use and 15 professors indicated

that they almost never used them, therefore they marked option 2 on

the Likert scale.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

Question 8 was posed to find out if the professors used the

institutional e-mail as a tool for internal communication in the virtual

modality, the answers were conclusive, since 16 professors answered

that it was always the ideal resource; with question 18, we inquired

about the same concept, but in the face-to-face modality, 14

professors answered that they always used this resource to

communicate, but 2 professors answered that they almost always

used it.

Question 9 was established to know if they authorized the use of

technological devices by their students (cell phones, tablets, laptops)

during their classes, in the current virtual modality, the 16 teachers of

the sample responded that their students always used them; with

question 19, the same information was required, but in the face-to-

face modality, 8 teachers responded with 3- partial use of these

devices, 4 teachers responded that they almost never used them and

4 teachers that they never used them in their classes.

Question 10 was formalized to know if the teachers used the

technological tools of the institutional platform to evaluate the

learning of their students during the virtual modality, to which 16

teachers, equivalent to 100% responded that they always used them,

question 20, with the same concern, but in the face-to-face modality,

had other answers, 8 teachers responded with 2-almost never, and 8

teachers with 1-never, is the Likert scale, which shows a significant

decrease in the use of technological tools in the university teaching

activity.

The analyses carried out lead us to conclude that, despite having

achieved significant progress in improving the digital skills of

teachers, which were used during the semesters carried out in the

virtual mode, today, upon returning to the classroom, the progress

acquired with great effort, with budgetary, technological and human

investment, overthrowing even the generational prejudices of

teaching from the 60s onwards, to adapt them to the new educational

approaches with digital support, today we see with concern how

these achievements are diluted in the first months of face-to-face

academic activities.

The answers are testimonies of the progress achieved by university

teachers in the technological field, as they learned the processes of

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

entry and use of these digital tools, adapted to the requirements and

protocols established and fulfilled their role in a different scenario to

the one they had worked in, as many of the teachers with an extensive

experience in the classroom modality, saw themselves as actors in a

new scenario, such as Zoom and Teams, two of the applications with

which they were familiarized because they worked with them for two

years in continuous activities.

These concepts lead us to reflect on the redesign of teacher training

careers, because teachers today surf the Internet, search for

information, download files, videos, games and multimedia material

as a normal activity, enter a virtual platform, schedule their classes,

tasks, exams, upload didactic material, organize online meetings, with

an amazing normality, and these new scenarios must be assimilated

and used by the new generations of teachers.

In this sense, we consider pertinent the proposal made by García

Aretio, 2020, of some authors who propose to place the face-to-face

modality as an extension of virtual education, since the use of

technologies in this traditional modality guarantees the pedagogical

link.

It is also necessary to recover some concepts expressed in the

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN, which points

out the importance of the dissemination and adoption of information

and communication technologies, such as the global interconnection

they provide to accelerate human progress, constructs that show that

beyond information and communication as fundamental elements of

society, these require the development of technology for the

planetary integration of social groups, is the reality that has been

experienced in the educational systems in the 2020-2022 biennium.

The same agenda argues that digital transformation implies a high

degree of investment in network infrastructure and connectivity in the

countries. The pandemic implied an extraordinary increase in the

number of devices connected at home simultaneously, using data and

videoconferencing platforms and a strong increase in work in the

cloud, which has led to an exponential increase in data traffic and has

created a bottleneck in wifi routers operating on unlicensed spectrum,

arguments that tend to value the effort deployed by universities to

give continuity to the training processes, therefore it is important that

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

these resources are redirected to the face-to-face education system

to invigorate the modality with technological presence.

It is also argued that "remote, emergency learning" or "emergency

virtualization" was the strategy of pedagogical continuity through

digital media in universities, in the face of the emergency of COVID-

19 that produced the forced interruption of face-to-face classes, the

concept of this new presentiality that must include the dynamics of

technological applications, due to the vertiginous advances in science

and technology, at the service of educational systems. Retrieved from

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/2015/09/la-

asamblea-general-adopta-la-agenda-2030-para-el-des.

The results of this study show that the digital competencies of

teachers are present in their work performance, that the learning

acquired by them gave viability to virtual work, that society can testify

to the paradigm shift of university teaching and the education system

as a whole, that teachers, despite having worked continuously for

more than 20 years in the classroom mode, this expertise was not an

impediment to adapt to technological changes and be part of a new

approach and manager of a new paradigm of curriculum

development.

Conclusions

The digital transformation implied a high degree of investment in

network infrastructure and connectivity in the higher education

system, and it is neither possible nor acceptable that this effort

deployed during those academic periods, when returning to the face-

to-face modality, will gradually disappear and its use will lose validity,

due to the lack of adequate planning in which technological tools

should be included as fundamental elements of academic activities,

for lack of foresight and equipment of the classrooms, to strengthen

the use of these tools for the advantages and benefits they offer and

have proven to have in the academic training processes.

It should be considered as a policy of the higher education system,

but also as institutional policies, that all modalities should have a

strong technological component, to enhance these digital resources

and the experiences of teachers in the new educational processes.

Digital teaching competencies in the return to face-to-face teaching

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , / 2024/ , Vol. 14, No. 1

There is a long way to go, which should motivate higher education

institutions to equip classrooms with state-of-the-art technology and

take advantage of the expertise of professors who have been part of

this process of change, in order to seek the effectiveness of higher

education, with a strong digital component.

Because it has been demonstrated with sufficient arguments that

technology will not overcome human acts, that it only replicates them,

therefore, it should be visualized that these tools with exclusive

training purposes are useful for learning activities, so classrooms

should be equipped instead of excluding these technological tools.

Reference

Digital competencies in the COVID 19 context: an educational

perspective. Dariel Díaz-Arce; Efraín Loyola-Illescas, 2021- Vol.

3 Núm. 1- pp. 120-15

Digital competences in higher education teachers Esther Fernández-

Márquez Published: 30/06/2018

Marquina, M., et al, (2022). Diagnostic report 2022 on higher

education and science post COVID-19 in Ibero-America.

Perspectives and challenges for the future. Caracas: OEI-

Organization of Ibero-American States. Retrieved from

https://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/1924

Zavala, D. et al, 2016. An approach to teachers' digital competencies,

UN, Sustainable Agenda 2030 retrieved from

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/es/2015/09/la-

asamblea-general-adopta-la-agenda-2030-para-el-des

https://blog.pearsonlatam.com/educacion-del-futuro/habilidades-

digitales-para-la-empleabilidad, 2023