Empowerment Technology: From ICT to Empowerment and Participation Technologies

Empowerment and Technology - Covid 19 Issue 

Empowerment Technology is the Technology of Empowerment and Participation, from now on TEP (Technologies of Empowerment and Participation), is a new terminology that is assigned to the technologies that are used as sustenance for the social cohesion of a certain group of people.

The crisis caused by COVID-19 has made it possible to see in greater depth the imbalances and educational inequity of our system, but it has also proven the resilience of teachers who actively participate in the “Learning at Home” strategy, observing progress in the use and development of digital skills that has been exponential and helps them to have class, but there are still important needs or gaps that we must take into account for its closure.

The first need is access to connectivity and in general to technology, which is an important gap in our country, the second need is related to the use of technology, which is the second gap, being able to use technology to learn and generate knowledge. , and a third gap is to achieve its effective use in the daily lives of citizens.

The third gap is the one that I will try to work on in this article, how to use technology to offer opportunities to citizens to empower themselves and participate in the various aspects of social life whose process must start from school. Using technology in the classroom was not until a few months ago and today it is impossible to ignore it, how to make the newcomer technology be an ally and after the pandemic, it is not considered a threat in schools? How to build a school that does not fall short of educational possibilities and moves towards empowerment of its students and teachers who use technology to perform their tasks and solve problems in their homes and community?

Answering these questions is a challenge, which can be approached in a collaborative and supportive way, of which the first news has already appeared, firstly, the response of teachers, students, and parents for developing the state strategy of “I learn in Casa ”that is promoted by different media, but there is also news this year about collective and associative responses from teachers to solve different educational challenges. Technology has made available to teachers the possibility of becoming local, regional, and national leaders in the style of many influencers or community managers that populate social networks. This is a great example of TEP which, according to Dolores Reig, gives the teacher the possibility of fulfilling two roles for the 21st century: that of being an organizer of collective intelligence, which is a good romance is having the ability to guide the obtaining of various products under the umbrella of organizing people. And be an expert teacher in participation, who is in charge of guiding individual empowerment and collective creativity.

Since the beginning of the crisis due to the pandemic, teachers have begun increasingly active participation in social networks, participation that over the months has ceased to be individual, passing to collective and collaborative participation in various topics, whose phenomenon it is necessary to review and give value using a TEP approach. What characteristics should an educational proposal have that empowers teachers and students using ICT? Considering Gil (2020) we can consider:

• The sense of power. Start by empowering the subject (teacher and student), raising their expectations regardless of the conditions in which they find themselves; give you confidence that you can make a difference. High expectations are more likely to go far.
• Empathy. Exchange individualism for a look towards the other. Ask ourselves what do those around us need? How can I help them? What can I do for them?
• Collaborative work. One condition to be more likely to go far is to do it together with others. Union and interdisciplinarity are important as important parts of the learning process.
• Learning through error. We must change our way of seeing the error and consider it as a fundamental part of the learning process, not be afraid of making mistakes as long as we learn, analyze, and advance in the processes and tasks so as not to make that mistake again.
• Imagination and creativity. The system must promote and stimulate imagination and creativity in the subjects to solve problems in different ways.
• Excitement and fun. Learning is fun and entertaining. Why do young people sometimes learn more by playing video games? Because generally video games are engaging and exciting, achieving an emotional connection. Let's do the same in our classes.
• Create technology. It should be committed to training students and teachers as creators of technology, not consumers. Technology becomes a tool to achieve a comprehensive education and respond to the need for a better world.

When using TEP in our system, we must understand that what is relevant is the need for people to achieve meaningful participation, thus communities of teachers formed in our country such as "Being a Teacher", "From teacher to teacher", "The community of Innovative teachers ”and others take a decisive step this year by consolidating ubiquitous organizations, where their individuals know or explore responses and want to have active participation, to provide their knowledge, without the need to be in the same place, space, place or time.

This concept of active participation enabled by the TEP is supported by ICT, but the socio-emotional component is more than important to make the leap. Therefore, it is necessary that we take certain conditions to empower and give participation to both teachers and students, thus complementing Patricia Gil it is also necessary to consider:

The autonomy. It is necessary that the collective does not absorb the individual, but rather fosters individual empowerment strategies, offers the individual independence, confidence, and self-efficacy about their learning, and can freely question what they learn.

Scaffolding. Working in a community and collaboratively offers advantages in obtaining information and guidance, allowing you to travel new paths more quickly than if you did it alone.

Connectivism. Technology makes it possible to form a network, both to access information and to obtain contacts that offer multiple advantages compared to working as an island.

The social construction of knowledge. Technology allows people to find ways to design and use group integration environments, which allow negotiations of meanings and reasoning and to build new knowledge (pedagogical in the case of teachers) elaborated socially.

Cognitive experience. Working in a group can be difficult at first, but its results become teaching-learning experiences, to develop cognitive skills such as problem-solving, designing solutions, and understanding reality from different points of view.

Given the educational proposal based on TEP, we must seek a balance between the teacher and the educational community to be able to take advantage of the potential of the internet as a didactic resource for the empowerment and participation of the educational community, being some resources such as:

Social networks. Social networks are enabling educational development and the meaning of TEP, being able to cite: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Edmodo, Tiktok, Instagram, Flipgrid, etc.

CMS, LMS, and LCMS. CMS (Content Management Systems), LMS (Learning Management Systems), and LCMS (Learning Content Management System). Content management systems and their variants can help in the process, we can mention: Schoology, Moodle, Idukay, Google Classroom, Litmos, Dokeos, Blackboard, etc.

Broadcast content. How content is recorded and transmitted is changing, we can cite as tools: Padlet, Easelly, VideoScribe, Prezi, Canva, Infogram, Genially, Sparkol, Thinglink, SoundCloud, Pixton, Sketchboard, Storybird, Meet, Teems, Zoom, etc.

Offer feedback and evaluate. Interactive games and tools are being used to provide feedback, we have Kahoot, Plickers, Quizlet, Blubbr, Wordwall, etc.

And many other tools that can be used to achieve TEP goals.

I am Abdur Rahim. I await your comments, doubts, and contributions to continue growing in this space.

References:

1. Juan Cadillo 

2. Gil., P (2020). How to build a better world with education. Revista Telos 114. Retrieved from https://publiadmin.fundaciontelefonica.com/index.php/publicaciones/add_descargas?tipo_fichero=pdf&idioma_fichero=es_es&title=Telos+114&code=715&lang=es&file=Telos_114.104611609252601141046.pdf_