Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital
Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers
Tetiana L. Hodovaniuk
1 a
, Tetiana M. Makhometa
1 b
, Irina M. Tiahai
1 c
,
Mariia O. Medvedieva
1 d
, Svitlana M. Pryshchepa
1 e
and Andrei V. Voznyak
2 f
1
Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University, 2 Sadova Str., Uman, 20300, Ukraine
2
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine
Keywords:
Digital Competence, Educational Training, Online Tools, Practicing Teachers.
Abstract:
The article considers possibilities of developing digital competence of teachers by using educational training
as an optional form of organization of the educational process and professional development of teachers.
Different approaches to the interpretation of the concept of digital competence of specialists, in particular
practicing teachers, are identified. Described training as one of the active forms of obtaining knowledge in
the system of continuing education of teachers. Given examples of online tools that were used during training
sessions for practicing teachers to develop one of the main components of their professional competence
digital competence. Provided static data on the effectiveness of this form of digital competence development,
obtained as a result of a survey of participating teachers described in the article of educational trainings.
1 INTRODUCTION
Intensive development of world civilization, global
transformation of education, intellectualization of
labour, as well as educational realities in a present
pandemic, indicate that one of the current issues that
needs immediate solution is the lack of proper digital
education policy, low digital competence of teachers
and students etc.
As stated in the Concept of the New Ukrainian
School, one of the tools to ensure success is the end-
to-end application of information and communication
technologies in the educational process. In particular,
it is emphasized that “the introduction of ICT in ed-
ucation should move from one-time projects to a sys-
temic process that covers all activities. ICT will sig-
nificantly expand the capabilities of the teacher, opti-
mize management processes, thus forming important
for our century technological competencies in the stu-
dent” (Elkin et al., 2017). All this indicates that mod-
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7087-7102
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4825-4707
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4360-7553
d
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9330-5185
e
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3483-1112
f
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4683-1136
ern society needs a teacher who has relevant knowl-
edge and is able to qualitatively meet the educational
needs of consumers of educational services using ad-
vanced pedagogical and information and communica-
tion technologies.
However, it should be noted that this is possi-
ble only if the teacher is constantly updating his/her
knowledge and skills development to teach qualita-
tively, but at the same time, as noted in the National
Report on state and prospects of education develop-
ment in Ukraine, to learn continuously when “edu-
cation becomes a means to the aim of human devel-
opment, which allows to establish its leading role,
the purpose of which is to form the skills necessary
to perform various functions self-expression, self-
realization, development of social relations and abil-
ity to act” (Kremen, 2017).
The active use of information and communication
technologies by the subjects of the educational pro-
cess contributes not only to the informatization of the
education system (Fedorenko et al., 2019), but also to
the growth of professional competencies of teachers
(Bakum et al., 2019). One of the professional com-
petencies that should be formed in the teacher of sec-
ondary education institutions is the competence in the
field of information technology, the development of
which is carried out through the use of integrated di-
372
Hodovaniuk, T., Makhometa, T., Tiahai, I., Medvedieva, M., Pryshchepa, S. and Voznyak, A.
Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers.
DOI: 10.5220/0010931900003364
In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 372-381
ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6
Copyright
c
2022 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
dactic systems, computer, Internet resources and dis-
tance learning (Shokaliuk et al., 2020).
The Law of Ukraine “On Education” defines com-
petence as “a dynamic combination of knowledge,
skills, thinking, attitudes, values, other personal qual-
ities that determine a person’s ability to socialize suc-
cessfully, conduct professional and / or further educa-
tional activities” (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2017).
Regarding the definition of competence in the
field of information technology, there was no un-
ambiguous approach until recently. Scientists
often used a variety of terminology: “infor-
mation competence”, “informational competence”,
“information-digital competence”, “digital compe-
tence”, “information-communication competence”,
etc. Recently, the term “digital competence” has be-
come more widely used by scholars which first ap-
peared in international documents and is widely used
in foreign countries.
The issues of digital competence were covered in
(Ferrari, 2011; Kuzminska et al., 2019; Leshchenko
et al., 2021; Prokhorova, 2015; Scott, 2015; Vuorikari
et al., 2016). In particular, the issues of development
of digital competence of a teacher were shown in
(Ivanytsky, 2020; Kartashova et al., 2018; Moiseienko
et al., 2020; Spirin, 2010; Trubavina et al., 2021).
There are many definitions of digital competence,
among them:
confident and thorough use of information and
communication technologies in such areas as
work (employment opportunities), education,
leisure, involvement and activities in society,
which are vital for everyday socio-economic life
(Kartashova et al., 2018);
ability to use digital resources and information
technologies, understand and be able to evaluate
digital resources and content critically, communi-
cate effectively (Scott, 2015);
a set of knowledge, skills required to use infor-
mation technology and digital media to perform
tasks; problem solving; information management;
cooperation; communication; creation and dis-
tribution of content; joint activities and meeting
needs (Ferrari, 2011);
the quality of the specialist, which indicates the
level of qualification from basic visual perception
and practical skills to more critical, evaluative and
conceptual approaches to the use of ICT, as well
as includes attitude and awareness in the field of
ICT (Spirin, 2010).
In particular, digital competence of teacher is in-
terpreted as:
knowledge, skills and abilities in the field of ICT
and the ability to apply them in professional ac-
tivities (Moiseienko et al., 2020);
the ability of the teacher to effectively and effi-
ciently use ICT in teaching and for professional
development (Prokhorova, 2015);
the skill of the teacher to apply information tech-
nology in professional activities (Vuorikari et al.,
2016), etc.
However, the features and ways of developing the
digital competence of practicing teachers have been
studied little and require additional research.
The purpose of the article is to reveal the possibil-
ities of developing digital competence of teachers by
using educational training as an optional form of or-
ganization of the educational process and professional
development of teachers.
2 RESULTS
The problem of continuing education of teacher prac-
titioners, whose professional activity occupies one of
the leading places in the development of society due
to modern paradigms of social development, novelty
of personal and social requirements to the system of
professional education of teachers and their readiness
to improve professional development.
In our opinion, special attention should be paid
to identifying ways to develop digital competence of
teachers in the context of continuing education. Thus,
Dryden and Vos (Dryden and Vos, 2005) see the main
task of modernity in “preparing all educators in such a
way that they know how to combine the best available
information technologies in the world with the most
advanced teaching methods available in the world and
teaching”.
One of the active forms of acquiring knowledge
in the system of continuing education of teachers is
educational training. Training comes from the “to
train”, which means “teach, train, instruct”. At the
same time, training is an interesting communication
and an exciting process of learning about yourself and
others and an effective form of learning, expanding
experience and a way to develop skills and abilities
(Panchuk, 2015).
Unlike traditional, training forms of learning fully
cover the full potential of student: the level and scope
of his/her competence (social, emotional and intellec-
tual), independence, ability to make decisions, inter-
action etc.
The effectiveness of this form of education is due
to the fact that (Blinov, 2008):
Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers
373
the point of view and knowledge of each partici-
pant is valued;
there is an opportunity to share your experience
and analyze it in a comfortable atmosphere with-
out coercion;
there is an opportunity to learn by performing
practical actions;
mistakes can be made that will not lead to punish-
ment or negative consequences;
there are no assessments and other “punitive”
means of assessing new knowledge”.
In the framework of the international project
“Modernization of Pedagogical Higher Education Us-
ing Innovative Teaching Tools” (MoPED) of the EU
program Erasmus + KA2 The Development of
Higher Education Potential, No 586098-EPP-1-2017-
1-EN-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP participants of Uman State
Pedagogical University conducted a series of train-
ings for teachers of secondary education, regardless
of their professional orientation.
According to statistics, the following distribution
of teachers who participated in the trainings was ob-
tained. Of the total number of training participants
who received feedback, 10% teach in primary school,
54% in secondary school, 36% in high school.
Among those who teach in primary or secondary
school, depending on the subject they teach, we have
the following distribution: humanities 12.5%; social
sciences 2.1%; economic sciences – 4.2%; technical
sciences (computer) 25%; technical sciences (non-
computer) – 27.1%; other fields (mathematics, chem-
istry, teacher-organizer) – 29.1%.
The level of digital competence of participants at
the beginning of the trainings was mostly sufficient
(38%) and average (62%).
The purpose of these trainings was to increase the
digital competence of teachers, acquaint them with
modern innovative tools and learning technologies.
The topics of the trainings were as follows: “Go-
Lab Ecosystem”, “Research Learning Technologies”,
“Computational Thinking”, “Development of Digital
Competence through Mobile Technologies”, “From
Classical Lesson to Research Learning”, “Research
Learning: Creating ILS on the Go-Lab Platform”,
“Mobile learning technology: the use of Classroom
in school practice”, “Technology of development
of critical thinking in students”, “STEM-education:
robotics, the use of sensors of mobile devices for
physical experiment”, “Introduction of Flipped Class-
room Technology in educational process”, “Technol-
ogy “Six Hats”: the development of critical thinking
of students”, “Technology “Scribing”: a vivid presen-
tation of educational material”, “Mentimeter.com
online survey in real time”, “Formation of soft skills
in students during implementation of the educational
process”, “The use of multimedia board as one of the
requirements of modern educational process in the in-
formation society”, “Virtual interactive whiteboards
as a modern means of educational material”, “Dis-
tance learning platforms and services” and others.
During the trainings, participants learned how to
organize educational activities more effectively, store
and create files in cloud storage, automatically eval-
uate student tasks and effectively organize work in
groups etc. The team of trainers demonstrated a vari-
ety of free online tools for offline and online classes,
for a vivid presentation of educational material, con-
trol of students’ knowledge etc. Here are examples of
online tools that were demonstrated during the train-
ings and contributed to the development of digital
competence of teachers and students.
One of the modern online tools that fascinates stu-
dents regardless of their age is Kahoot! This is an ed-
ucational service with which you can conduct interac-
tive educational games: quizzes, discussions, surveys,
etc. You can access it through a web browser or the
Kahoot app! in Google Play or App Store.
During the trainings, participants had the opportu-
nity to get acquainted with four options for registra-
tion on this service: Basic, which is free; Plus, Pro-
fessional, Premium, which are paid. But even basic
(free) access to the platform gives the teacher quite a
lot of opportunities:
allows to involve up to 50 students in testing;
you can create questions yourself or use ready-
made questions from the bank;
you can enable the function for automatic mixing
of answers to the question;
to visualize the question, you can use a bank of
images, add them to questions or use as answers;
it is possible to limit the time given to the student
to answer questions;
you can determine the number of points for each
correct answer;
allows you to find out how each student answered
the questions or build success charts of the aca-
demic group.
Free access allows you to create only two types
of questions: quiz, namely a question with “multiple
choice”, when the student is offered several answers
and he chooses one or more correct and “true or false”
when the student is offered two mutually exclusive
answers (figure 2).
The offered service allows to carry out testing in
two ways:
AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology
374
Figure 1: Distribution of teachers who participated in the trainings.
Figure 2: Types of questions in Kahoot!.
Figure 3: An example of Kahoot! for teachers.
virtual classroom testing can be taken with stu-
dents during offline lessons. In this case, the ques-
tions and answer options appear on the projector
or computer screen of the teacher and students an-
swer from their mobile phones or computers;
for self placed learning students take tests on
their own, questions and answer options appear
on the screen of their computers or smartphones.
Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers
375
Figure 4: View and download the report.
Figure 5: Kahoot! results report in Excel.
By choosing this method, the teacher has the op-
portunity to set the date and period of time during
which the test will be open.
During the conversation at the training, all educa-
tors unanimously stated that during online lesson it
is quite difficult to keep students’ attention when ex-
plaining the material. Therefore, the trainers showed
that you can try not just to tell the topic with the pre-
sentation, but to prepare the Kahoot test! and activate
students with short pauses with interesting questions
on the topic. Students can take quizzes individually,
and it is possible to create competitions where par-
ticipants receive points for speed and correctness of
answers. A small competition will always help make
the lesson more interesting.
Since the training was attended by teachers from
different subjects, in order to acquaint them with this
platform, our team was offered to pass Kahoot! on
“What do I know about Ukraine?” (figure 3). The
work with this service was as follows: first, teach-
ers took the role of students and passed the quiz, and
then, after registration, independently created their
own Kahoots in accordance with the subjects taught.
After working with this service, teachers came
AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology
376
Figure 6: Service LearningApps.
Figure 7: Types of interactive exercises in LearningApps.
to the conclusion that Kahoot! is a convenient tool
for creating tests that can be used for: current and
thematic control of students’ knowledge; self-study
and self-control; preparation for tests and independent
work; survey of students’ opinions, etc. The “virtual
classroom” survey method can be used not only for
classroom classes or distance learning. It can also be
used during student conferences, research groups or
other events where there is a need to involve students
in discussing scientific or educational issues.
The service allows you to download to Google
Drive or PC file (figure 4) with the named results in
Excel format (figure 5).
Another online service that allows you to create
interactive exercises is LearningApps.org. This ser-
vice is a designer for the development of various tasks
in various subject areas for use in the classroom and in
extracurricular activities and for kids and high school
Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers
377
Figure 8: Creating a Class in LearningApps.
Figure 9: The results of the survey of training participants.
students.
LearningApps service is a Web 2.0 application to
support educational processes in educational institu-
tions of various types. Designer LearningApps is de-
signed to develop, store interactive tasks in various
subject disciplines, through which students can test
and consolidate their knowledge in the form of games,
which contributes to the formation of their cognitive
interest (figure 6).
The service presents many interactive exercises
that have been developed for various forms of edu-
cational process. During the training, teachers were
shown how these exercises can be used in working
with an interactive whiteboard, as well as individual
exercises for students when doing independent work.
The LearningApps service provides the ability to
AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology
378
Figure 10: The results of the survey of training participants.
Figure 11: The results of the survey of training participants.
obtain code so that interactive tasks can be posted on
the pages of websites or blogs of teachers and stu-
dents. The trainers emphasized to the participants
that each of the resources can be used in their class,
changed for their own needs, develop a similar or
completely different training module, it can be stored
in your own “office”, creating your account in this on-
line environment.
During the training, participants had the opportu-
nity to get acquainted with the types of tasks offered
by this service (figure 7), to play the role of a student,
having already completed the exercise and to create
their own interactive task under the guidance of train-
ers. There are several exercise templates available in
each group, the description and samples of which can
be previewed before creating your own learning re-
source.
The participants of the trainings were shown the
possibility of creating a Class in the teacher’s own ac-
count (figure 8), entering data about students, creating
a profile for each student, setting a password to log in,
etc.
This feature of the proposed service will be useful
in connection with the current epidemiological situ-
ation in the country and in the world, as the teacher
will be able to provide students with tasks remotely
and monitor their implementation.
After working with this service, the training par-
ticipants agreed that the Learning Apps service and its
electronic versions of tasks are especially attractive
Educational Trainings as One of the Effective Forms of Digital Competence Development of Secondary School Teachers
379
because they allow you to get results almost imme-
diately after the test. Interactive learning tasks help
increase the level of digital competence of teachers
and students, as well as aimed at solving the most im-
portant task of education to teach school leavers to
work productively in the world of global informati-
zation and in connection with global quarantine and
the transition of all educational institutions to distance
learning which is very important.
In addition to these online services, participants
were also introduced to such services as: Mentimetr,
Classtime, Plickers, ClassTools, etc during the train-
ing. The method of conducting trainings on the use of
these services in the educational process will be de-
scribed in more detail in the following publications.
At the end of the trainings, the participants were
interviewed about the general impression of the train-
ings, the methodology of their conduct and technical
and social competence of the trainers. 50 respondents
took part in the survey. The results of the survey are
presented in the form of diagrams (figures 9–11).
3 CONCLUSIONS
So, the growing role of ICT in education and every-
day life requires the formation of digital competence
of each individual. This process is entrusted to the
teacher as the main agent of action and the engine
of modern reforms. That is why there is a question
of continuous improvement of their level of digital
competence quality, the formation of which allows
teachers at a high professional level to use electronic
educational resources to search, logical selection, sys-
tematization, use of educational material and effective
educational process.
Further research should focus on the use of other
innovative technologies, including the ClassDojo,
Classtime platform, etc., to increase the digital com-
petence of practicing teachers, as well as to find other
training topics for the development of professional
competence of educators.
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