In the panel ‘The role of educators in the digital age’, on the second day of the XI Leaders for Education Summit, invited experts They made known the fundamental role that educators play in the context of the digital age. They focused on how educational adaptability and transformative approach are being driven by technology and its implementation in classrooms and educational systems.
The conversation was moderated by Sindey Carolina Bernal, former vice minister of Digital Transformation, and included Sebastián Moreno Cruz, CEO of Critertec; Juli Mejía, head of Innovation and Learning at Comfama; Mónica Hernández, director of the Telefónica Movistar Colombia Foundation; Marcela Bautista, Education specialist at CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean -, and Juli Mejía, head of Innovation and Learning at Comfama.
To this end, Mónica Hernández highlighted the importance of guaranteeing connectivity throughout the national territory, so that teachers and students can have the best use of technology, in order to have better learning tools in the classroom.
“We have to understand the digital divide not only from the point of view of internet access or the availability of fixed or mobile equipment, but from the point of view of the skills required to take advantage of these accesses. We still have a long way to go in rural areas to have the equality that we dream of and that is in the process of providing connectivity to all territories. With the Profuturo project we have shown that Yes, we manage to have an environment in which teachers can train; understand how equipment and tools work, and have access to content, information and equipment Even though we have connectivity problems, we are going to make a difference,” the board assured.
Meanwhile, Julí Mejía from Confama, pointed out the importance of tools for organization and time management as ideal resources to facilitate and enhance the capabilities of teachers. “Within the new artificial intelligence tools, ChatGPT, it has been fulfilling an important integrality to create images, perform searches and specialized analysis. But, I also believe that when one works with projects it is important to know how to organize, even in the classroom. To do this, there are several tools for task management. Among other strategies, we also propose programs for teacher well-being, mentoring such as Mentor Labs and methodologies such as iTPACK.”
Finally, Sebastián Moreno from Critertec, warned that “you have to think about training and changes in a systemic way and not individually. If a teacher has to change their practices, it is because we are understanding that education, students, the academic community and the environment are also changing.” Likewise, he highlighted that Teachers must investigate, explore and learn more about artificial intelligence until it becomes an augmented intelligence of themselves.and do not settle for just the basic use of this tool.
“We have to learn and teach about artificial intelligence and these models. We must analyze how we best use this technology responsibly and recognizing its use. Both educators and students can take advantage of these tools. It is like having a personal assistant that helps us save hours of work, plan, reflect, integrate educational practices and evidence-based resources, and enable new institutional bets,” said Díaz.
