Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

VIRTUAL REALITY IS AN IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS GAINING MOMENTUM IN EDUCATION AND HAS LED TO NEW TEACHING APPROACHES. MOREOVER, IT HAS SPARK INTEREST IN EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAMS AND ESPECIALLY IN THE TRAINING OF BILINGUAL AND ESL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS. THIS ARTICLE SHOWCASES A QUALITATIVE STUDY CONDUCTED WITH N=27 UNDERGRADUATE BILINGUAL AND ESL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS. THE STUDY SOUGHT TO DETERMINE THE PERCEPTION OF BILINGUAL AND ESL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS WITH VR AND PROVIDE AN UNDERSTANDING OF VR MOBILE APPLICATIONS' EXPERIENCES. ALL RESULTS WERE OBTAINED FROM GUIDED REFLECTIONS MADE BY PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS ENROLLED IN THE COURSE THEORIES OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION FOR ESL AND BILINGUAL TEACHER AT A UNIVERSITY LOCATED IN NORTH TEXAS. A CONTENT ANALYSIS WAS PERFORMED TO ANALYZE THE REFLECTIONS, AND THREE CATEGORIES WERE DETERMINED: STRENGTHS OF VR, LIMITATIONS OF VR, AND VR MOBILE APPLICATIONS. THE FINDINGS REVEALED A POSITIVE PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE STRENGTHS OF VR WITH 60%, INCLUDING PROMOTES STUDENT ENGAGEMENT (41%) AND MOTIVATES STUDENTS (29%). ON THE OTHER HAND, PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS PERCEIVED LIMITATIONS OF VR, INCLUDING ASSOCIATED COSTS (44%) AND THE ABILITY TO ACCESS THE INTERNET (31%). FINALLY, VR MOBILE APPLICATIONS WHICH OFFERED VR TOURS WERE PERCEIVED TO ENHANCE LEARNING EXPERIENCES, INCLUDING GOOGLE EXPEDITIONS (51%) AND VR TUBE (23%).

The conceptualization of repositories has diversified widely based on their contextual and disciplinary application. In this diversification, there is no specific definition for Educational Software Repositories (ESR). The objective of this documentary research was to develop a concept that would make it possible to specify what an ESR is. The Conceptual Mapping method was applied, which is a critical analysis procedure in four phases: 1) Search for documents relevant to the problem; b) Definition of the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of documents; 3) Data analysis with 8 categories: historical development, notion, categorization, classification, differentiation, exemplification, theorization and characterization; 4) Interpretation of the results under the educational perspective of software. The results show 11 types of repositories: Digital, Institutional, Aggregator, Thematic, Digital Educational Material, Administrative Documents, Learning Objects, Software Components and/or Software Assets, National and Data. The most important finding suggests that an ESR is a digital, institutional and thematic repository, with open access and interdisciplinary application, which stores engineering processes for the development of agile software, components or assets, used in the construction of educational resources and learning objects specifically in the pedagogical area.

Spanish educational legislation establishes that students in Primary Education must acquire Digital Competence as one of the Key Competencies recommended by the European Union in the European Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The assessment of the Key Competencies is a challenge for teachers, since in the learning process the development of competencies is usually restricted, which makes it difficult to measure. This work aims to validate an effective instrument to measure the digital competence of students in the 5th and 6th grades of primary education. A total of 170 students from two schools in Córdoba participated in this research, with a mean age of 11.05 (SD=.775). The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as a data collection instrument to check the level of acquisition of Digital Competence. The results show that the instrument is divided into two dimensions: usefulness and enjoyment, these two scales being like those established by Davis (1989) at the beginning of the TAM: usefulness and ease of use. It can be concluded that the TAM is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the digital competence of primary school students.

The coronavirus crisis caused the closure of schools which had to adapt quickly. Schools and their teachers had to be resilient in order to transmit resilience to both families and children. Social networks were a useful tool. The study of social networks is valuable to analyze communication between school and family during confinement. The present research analyzes the content (quantitatively and qualitatively) of a social network (Instagram) of an early childhood school with Reggio Emilia philosophy during the period of confinement in Spain, to observe its link with resilience. Results show that in most publications, the school shares different contents with families to increase their resilience and well-being, also showing positive feedback from them. Among the most relevant contents, the importance of stories and music is observed, and a fundamental role of teachers. Resilience in times of crisis is a very important factor to face adversity with an adaptive attitude. Enhancement of each action in favor of resilience is positive to improve and deepen its importance.

The work presents a framework for evaluating the digital skills of teachers that aimed to guide the design of interventions of a Strengthening Program for the Classroom @prende 2.0 in Mexico. The instrument for measuring this competence consisted of two parts. One part referred to the adoption of the technology and inquired about the use of devices and programs and their frequency. The other, referred to the uses in the teaching processes and investigated the contents at the heart of the DIGCOMPEDU framework of the European Union. Operationally unsophisticated use was considered to be timely and educationally relevant. That is, a use of ICT can be strategic in the educational process without it being specialized or sophisticated from a technical point of view. The results are discussed in this sense, as well as possible biases derived from the application of the instrument, from the adaptation to the context (valid and reliable so far in European countries), or from the moment of measurement (the pandemic). For the analysis of the DIGCOMPEDU scales, the Guttman Scalogram procedure was followed.  

The purpose of the following research is to analyze to what extent the video games and the gamification tools -Quizizz and Socrative- developed are learning strategies that facilitate the educational process, promoting the performance, participation and motivation of students in university studies. The proposed objective is to analyze the effectiveness of the application of video games and gamification to improve the knowledge and skills of students in the subject of Social Sciences and its Didactics. Using a quantitative methodology with a quasi-experimental design, a survey was carried out with a sample composed of 116 participants who are studying the Degree in Primary Education at a private Spanish university. For the data analysis, the GraphPad Prism 5 program has been used and the arithmetic mean is shown with the standard deviation of the values ​​collected before and after the use of the tools mentioned above. The students positively valued the inclusion of this type of gamification strategies in the subject, so it can be considered that the application of gamification and video games favors the development of an initial training of future Primary Education teachers more adapted to the current reality.

Research in recent years shows that the use of robotics can be an important tool in enhancing the cooperation and social interaction of children with autism. According to the literature review, the use of social assistance robots as an aid can bring significant benefits to the development of social skills in children with autism in areas that show underlying deficits. In the present research we will investigate the attitudes of teachers about the basic technical elements of social assistance robots that affect and function therapeutically in enhancing the collaborative and communicative behavior of children with autism. The analysis of the data concerns the effect of robotic tools on enhancing the cooperation and communication skills of children with autism in areas such as, verbal ability, eye contact, reduction of stereotypical behavior of children, imitation.

Mobile applications which incorporate health-related contents are technological tools that have become more widely spread in recent years, especially due to the global coronavirus pandemic. In Spain, many apps have already been subjected to quality and reliability regulation through accreditation initiatives. In addition, it has been proven that gamification in this sort of technology is effective in generating healthy behaviors in the young population. This research focuses on knowing how many of these apps have a quality certification in our country and promote healthy habits in children and young people. An exhaustive review has been carried out of governmental and non-governmental health websites, specifically those which recognise different quality seals, badges or labels as accrediting initiatives in the field of health. As for the results, in spite of the importance for their health and well-being, there are few certified mobile applications that integrate gamified elements and are intended to educate children and adolescents about the importance of a healthy lifestyle in comparison to the number of apps available for adults.

Within higher education, the development of new teaching-learning modalities has been innovating with the evolution of ICTs, so that higher education institutions in Ecuador have undergone pedagogical changes. The research presents a non-experimental design, with a qualitative and descriptive approach, because a comparative study was made on the perspectives of 8 vice-deans of the virtual careers offered by UTM, regarding various important aspects within the online modality, some of them: the incorporation of digital tools in their teaching activities, state of digital skills, modalities adopted within the virtuality and certain characteristics within the teaching practice. The results obtained indicate that new teaching-learning methodologies have been adopted within the virtuality, in addition, the use of software or digital tools for the development of activities in each of the careers has increased, which has had an impact on obtaining good professional competencies in both teachers and students. It is concluded that it is necessary to continue strengthening the teaching-learning process in virtuality, through the incorporation of new tools, teacher training and student academic follow-up.

The scientific literature shows that video games are still an "unexplored" subject, as almost all the studies carried out are based on preconceptions that prevent a clear understanding of them and their possible relationship with health predictors in the child and adolescent population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between attention and habitual consumption of video games in a sample of schoolchildren in the fifth and sixth years of primary education. A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed with a sample of 125 schoolchildren. Selective attention was assessed by means of the Perception of Similarities and Differences Test and video game consumption habits by means of the Questionnaire on video game consumption habits. Statistical analysis did not show a significant association between habitual video game playing and attention (β = -0.442; t = -0.454; p > .005). On the basis of these results, we conclude that habitual video game playing is not associated with attention in primary school students. In this sense, longitudinal and prospective studies should determine how the tendency to have a greater habitual consumption of video games, and/or behaviours in relation to this variable, may affect the attention of individuals throughout their schooling and in later life.