Digital Education: Education today for tomorrow

Sandra Sovilj - Nikić, Nikolina katić, Bojana Mihl

Faculty of Education, University of Novi Sad

sandrasn@eunet.rs

Education for digital transformation

Abstract

 Following modern trends and listening to the needs of education, economy and society, a new study program for undergraduate and master's studies at the Faculty of Education in Sombor of the University of Novi Sad titled Digital Education was accredited. The goal of this study program is to train an educational profile that will be professional help and support for teachers in the application of information-communication technologies (ICT) while teaching. Having in mind that this profile possesses the necessary knowledge in the field of digital technologies on the one hand and all the necessary pedagogical, psychological, and teaching methodology knowledge on the other hand, the Digital Education study program meets the challenges of modern education. 

The goal of the research presented in this paper is to examine and determine the degree of digital competence of teachers and the level of capability for independent use of ICT, as well as to determine their attitudes toward the introduction of a professional associate into educational practice, who would be a help and support to teachers in applying ICT. In the research carried out in primary and secondary schools in the territory of Vojvodina, which is an autonomous region within the Republic of Serbia, a survey method and an anonymous survey questionnaire were used. The questionnaire was filled out by 240 teacher participants. During the research, a modified Likert scale with multiple choice questions was used. 

The results of the research show that most teachers have a satisfactory level of digital competence which they have acquired through some form of informal education and that more than 90% of the participants use modern technologies for the purpose of preparing lessons and teaching. However, the majority of participants believe that the introduction of an expert associate in the application of ICT would be extremely helpful for teaching Furthermore, the majority of participants believe that the introduction of an expert associate in the application of ICT would be extremely helpful for higher quality teaching, which implies the use of digital technologies in full capacity. Also, the results of the research indicate that the participants are not familiar with the accreditation of the Digital Education study program, as well as that they support the accreditation and consider it useful. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that in educational practice there is a real need for accreditation of the Digital Education study program, as well as for increased efforts to promote it.

Key words

digital technologies, information-communication technologies, learning, study program, teaching