Lucy Andrade-Vargas’s research while affiliated with Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja and other places

Learning to read during the first years of life is a subject of extensive research and intervention at the level of public, social and institutional policies. The objective of this research is to design a prototype of a virtual learning laboratory, integrating didactic, technological and trans-media inclusive resources that contribute to the development of reading competence in 5-year- old children. A mixed quantitative-qualitative, exploratory-descriptive design was applied, assessing the interactivity and usability of the virtual laboratory “LecturLab”, using as instruments the LORI-AD questionnaire [1] with the following criteria: quality of content, correspondence with the objective, feedback and adaptation, motivation, design and presentation, interaction and usability, accessibility, reusability; and an ad-hoc observation sheet to know the children's skills in relation to the designed resource. It is concluded that “LecturLab” allows children to handle technological resources independently and intuitively, awakening motivation and active participation, as well as the development of phonetic, syntactic and semantic awareness, which are integrated when using visual and auditory resources. In the results of the teachers, 57.1% indicate that the resource is good, the design of this type of laboratories expands the access and use of digital tools with a variety of activities to initiate the reading process in face-to-face or virtual spaces. The creation and use of digital resources makes visible new forms of teaching- learning in early childhood and the need for further research, since the reading process is not limited to the exclusive use of concrete material as it was a few decades ago.

La irrupción en la cotidianidad de la COVID-19 supuso una transformación sin precedentes en los modos de relación a nivel global, que afectó de manera significativa a la educación. Este artículo caracteriza las adaptaciones pedagógicas realizadas por los docentes y directivos durante las etapas de confinamiento y semipresencialidad, con el interés de analizar su viabilidad en contextos de “nueva normalidad”. Para responder a este objetivo, se ha desarrollado una investigación cualitativa con 20 docentes y directivos de instituciones educativas de educación primaria y secundaria de Ecuador y España. A través de entrevistas semiestructuradas y en profundidad, este trabajo explora los problemas y soluciones desplegadas por los docentes y directivos, indagando también en cómo la diversidad de percepciones sobre la práctica se ha modulado de acuerdo a criterios tales como los años de experiencia docente, la competencia digital de los profesores, el régimen de financiación de la institución, la disponibilidad de recursos y el acceso a planes de formación en los centros. El artículo muestra cómo en el caso de España el regreso a la “nueva normalidad” ha significado un retorno a las prácticas centradas en el docente y la exposición magistral de contenidos, incorporando el apoyo puntual de las plataformas digitales. Por su parte, el texto evidencia cómo en Ecuador existe una mayor predisposición al desarrollo de estrategias flexibles, si bien esta se encuentra limitada por la propia capacidad presupuestaria de los centros para ampliar la infraestructura necesaria para garantizar las modalidades híbridas.

The confinement and migration from face-to-face to open access, online or blended/hybrid education modality caused because of the coronavirus crisis has forced a readaptation of education with enormous deficiencies at all levels. This work analyzes the viewpoint of a group of students from the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (Ecuador) regarding the current state of emergency from a descriptive and correlational quantitative methodological conception, based on the application of an instrument made up of six thematic blocks: socio-demographic situation, use of ICT, importance of ICT, methodology, didactic techniques, and study modality. The main results show that students are not yet convinced that a virtual modality is better than face-to-face. However, there are groups that value positively the use of ICTs mainly for recalling information, self-learning, and motivation. The techniques most valued by students are the traditional ones: teacher explanation and individual work. However, they give a low value to individualization as a methodological principle under which these techniques are based.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected global educational systems, especially in developing countries. Therefore, governments and educational administrators have adopted contingency measures to maintain the functioning and the sustainability of their national educational systems. These measures involved the use of technologies and have enabled a significant amount of teachers to continue working with their students around the globe. This article aims to analyze the perception of Ecuadorian teachers about the contingency measures taken at the governmental and institutional levels while facing the COVID-19 crisis. Also, several aspects regarding the teachers’ perceptions about their technological skills, access to electronic devices, and implications of teleworking in their mental health and performance are also analyzed. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 3,183 Ecuadorian teachers working at all levels of education. An online questionnaire which obtained a reliability of 0.84 in Cronbach's Alpha was used. The results show that despite the high levels of uncertainty, most teachers agreed with the measures that had been taken by the Government, the Ministry of Education as well as their institutions and reported feeling comfortable with teleworking. However, the lack of technological resources in rural areas and the lack of trust in the effectiveness of online classes are aspects that need to be analyzed before considering the viability of long-term online education in Ecuador.

The growing access to the Internet, devices, and social media has revolutionized communication processes and democratized access to information and content creation. However, several researchers have shown that although access to the Internet is readily available, the virtual world is a mirror of the society in which we live where digital inequity exists. Several studies present evidence that social status does not affect the presence of social network users, but it does affect the way it is used and content creation, although it concerns studies that were mostly carried out in European and North American contexts. This research explores the socioeconomic profile of young people concerning the consumption and creation of content, and the virtual world of adolescents related to social inequalities found in the real world. This study followed an exploratory quantitative design by means of a survey that was applied to 2,115 high-school students from high-performing educational institutions in Ecuador. The results highlight three units of analysis: (1) reasons for using the platform (2) time of consumption (3) type of content that young people create. In line with previous studies, it points out how the socio-economic environment has an effect on how young people use social networks. Similarly, it shows an increase in the democratization of content creation processes.

Citation: Ramírez-Montoya, M.S.; Andrade-Vargas, L.; Rivera-Rogel, D.; Portuguez-Castro, M. Trends for the Future of Education Programs for Professional Development. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7244. Abstract: Scientific and technological developments bring new requirements for university education and, particularly, the training of education professionals. There is a regular need to update curricula to integrate market trends and educational approaches. It is necessary to know future trends in education and teaching programs. Our research in a higher education institution in Ecuador focused on providing perspectives on the future of educational programs by analyzing trends in educational programs' designs, students and professors' needs for innovative education. We used the descriptive/exploratory case study method, employing quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, focus groups and benchmarking as instruments. The surveys were applied to 337 current students, 384 potential students and 313 graduates of Educational Sciences. We conducted interviews with 20 experts from Mexico, Spain, Colombia and Ecuador. We held focus groups with 32 education professionals, including rectors, principals, educational specialists and primary, secondary and university teachers. Benchmarking was used in our analysis of ten universities. The results focused on five elements that were units of analysis (1) characteristics of education programs, (2) student requirements, (3) required educational modalities, (4) trends in education and (5) future of education programs. The data and results may be of interest to decision-makers, academicians, researchers, students and citizens interested in professional education and other disciplinary areas.

La presente obra constituye una guía teórico-práctica actualizada de las competencias mediáticas e informaciones que necesitan los educadores para afrontar los retos que caracterizan la era post-COVID-19. Es un manual didáctico pensado para este nuevo mundo donde irrumpe con fuerza la virtualización de las interacciones, acelerando la innovación educativa en el confinamiento global, acentuando las desigualdades existentes y obligando al sistema educativo a reinventarse de manera urgente. Afrontar los retos que suponen la continua transformación mediática, la difusión de informaciones falsas sin control, el nuevo rol de los usuarios, múltiple y cambiante, y la generación de los personajes protagónicos de las redes, los influencers, entre otros aspectos, exige una formación espe-cífica que disminuya la brecha existente entre los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje y los cambios que se están dando en la sociedad. Así, el presente currículum aborda de una forma concreta y adecuada al perfil de los docentes las competencias que cualquier educador, independientemente del nivel y de la asignatura que imparta, debería desarrollar para poder formar a su alumnado, atendiendo a los desafíos que nos impone la sociedad digitalizada y lograr, de este modo, que se desenvuelva eficazmente en ella. Este texto es una obra colectiva, producto de investigaciones y experiencias de los miembros de Alfamed, Red Euroamericana de Investigadores en Educomunicación. Desde una visión plural, multicultural y di versa, se ofrece un programa global de formación de profesores en educación mediática que amplía y actualiza el Curriculum MIL Unesco para los retos pospandémicos de la tercera década de este siglo. Participan un total de 22 investigadores de 12 países de América y Europa (España, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, México, Portugal, Italia, Colombia, Brasil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Argentina): Amor Pérez-Rodríguez, Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú, Antonia Ramírez-García, Mónica Bonilla-del-Río, Ignacio Aguaded, Águeda Delgado-Ponce, Daniela Jaramillo-Dent, Vanessa Matos Dos-Santos, René Zeballos, Andrea Villarrubia, Natalia González, Ángel Hernando-Gómez, Paloma Contreras-Pulido, Sabina Civila, Armanda Matos, Simona Tirocchi, Yamile Sandoval, Diana Rivera-Rogel, Carolina Ávalos, Morella Alvarado, Iván Sánchez-López, Luis-Alberto Monge, Maricel Etchegaray, Irina Salcines, Lucy Andrade-Vargas, Karina Picado, Javier Tarango, J. Machin-Mastromatteo.