Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones: su uso racional en el proceso docente educativo

Lázaro Pablo Linares Cánovas; Liyansis Bárbara Linares Cánovas; Luis Alberto Lazo Herrera

Information and communication technologies: their rational use in the teaching-learning process

RESEARCH PAPER

Information and communication technologies: their rational use in the teaching-learning process

Tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones: su uso racional en el proceso docente educativo

Lázaro Pablo Linares Cánovas, Liyansis Bárbara Linares Cánovas, Luis Alberto Lazo Herrera

Pinar del Río University of Medical Sciences. Cuba.

ABSTRACT

The information and communication technologies have influenced greatly in diverse spheres of society, within them, the teaching-learning process of the Medicine career. These professional training institutions have been consistent with its development and implementation, whose fundamental impact is focused on its use as a data source, communication channel, cognitive instrument and information processing. The present article alerts on the necessity of its mastery as tools for the creation of new and useful teaching aids in which techniques and pedagogical foundation must be combined in an appropriate way to achieve a rational use.

MeSH: information technologies and communication projects, students, education, medical.

RESUMEN

Las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones han influido marcadamente en diversas esferas de la sociedad, dentro de ellas, el proceso docente educativo de la carrera de Medicina. Estas instituciones de formación de profesionales han sido consecuentes con su desarrollo e implementación, cuyo impacto fundamental se centra en su utilización como fuente de datos, canal de comunicación, instrumento cognitivo y de procesamiento de la información. El presente artículo alerta sobre la necesidad de su dominio como herramientas para la creación de novedosos y útiles medios de enseñanza en los que técnicas y fundamento pedagógico deben combinarse de forma acertada para lograr un uso racional.

DeCS: proyectos de tecnologías de información y comunicación, estudiantes, educación médica.

The new challenges of global public health demand the training of new professionals, capable of responding to the demands of current times. Health as a core element of human development goes beyond the framework of health care and transcends all spheres of society; the role of medical schools and their professionals in the commitment to respond to the needs of the population and improve their health status is unquestionable.

The name of the current society as a "society of knowledge" recognizes the progressive importance of information as a source for development; the exponential scientific-technical growth has caused a vertiginous increase in knowledge production, whose transmission acquires relevance today. In this way, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have consequently brought a dizzying explosion in the transmission and exchange of data, information and knowledge.^1,2

The health sciences teaching-learning process, the teaching aids have served as a complement to guarantee its quality, either traditional or those generated using the tools offered by ICT; The latter have treasured a special significance due to their use in the light of new training sites closely linked to primary health care. The advantages they offer bring with them the necessary transformation of the teaching-learning process, sustaining it in current theoretical foundations, related to the transfer of the center of attention from the teaching and the teacher, to the student's learning.

As a result of the scientific-technical revolution, these aids acquire a qualitatively superior connotation within the teaching-learning process, they allow the speed and effectiveness of learning, decrease the intellectual exhaustion of the students and make it possible to synthesize a large volume of information, while at the same time making much more pleasant and productive the work of the teachers; all without replacing the educational and human function of the teacher.

But, in the opinion of the authors, a question arises in this regard; does the teacher know how to give proper use to ICT? The answer to this question is important and points to the need for teacher preparation to make more effective its use, taking advantage of creative and productive potentials they offer; However, according to the literature reviewed,^3,4 some do not adequately master their tools in terms of designing new teaching methods. To develop such work, the teacher must know its management from the purely technical point of view when the resource is already developed, or advance their skills and be able to assume their full execution. However, it must be understood that its effectiveness is not determined by the novel or striking it could be, or by the amount of technology that is deployed, but by the pedagogical foundation that supports the need for its use.

The truth is that a good part of teachers perceive this technological innovation as inevitable, but tend to rely more on traditional media. The two arguments that could explain this situation would be:

The saturation of tasks that require them to concentrate on the organization and development of teaching activities, which prevents them from investing time in the selection and preparation of materials that involve the use of ICT.
The lack of skills to use materials with a strong innovative character, which tends to cause distrust towards them.3

On the other hand, the authors of this article have observed the tendency of many teachers to think that a class meets the objectives set if only teaching media designed using ICT are used, without taking into account that many times what happens is that the students do not pass from the stage of passive receivers, and the objectives are partially fulfilled. This phenomenon occurs when, incorrectly, the teacher places more emphasis on the novelty of design to draw the student's attention, than on the pedagogical elements that support its use, thereby eliminating any possibility of achieving a good development of the teaching-learning process.

Every teacher must be aware of the need for the use of technologies to develop teaching aids that encourage reflection and critical thinking, but making an adequate and rational use of them, which, by themselves, fail to provide answers to the needs of the different educational models, but they must be contemplated in a well-designed pedagogical model where each of the components involved have their roles well identified and established.^1,5

The authors agree with Curbelo Mena et al.6 when they state "... the greatest danger of education today is that we intend to do the same as we did yesterday, with today´s tools. This is where there is space for dialogue and the development of a process of assimilation of ICT that transforms the teaching-learning process..."

Finally, the authors of this research paper consider it necessary to encourage teachers upgrading in the mastery of these tools because of the unlimited possibilities they offer for the execution of an effective teaching-learning process, since they foster a profound revolution in the preparation and conception of the aids and methods to fulfill the proposed social assignment, but without forgetting the role of the teacher as mediator for the excellence of the process.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

BIBLOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

1. Prieto Díaz V, Quiñones La Rosa I, Ramírez Durán G, Fuentes Gil Z, Labrada Pavón T, Pérez Hechavarría O et al. Impacto de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones en la educación y nuevos paradigmas del enfoque educativo. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2011 [citado 22 Jul 2016];25(1):[aprox. 7 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0864-21412011000100009&lng=es

2. González Rodríguez R, Cardentey García J, González García X. Consideraciones acerca del empleo de las tecnologías de la información en la enseñanza universitaria. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2015 [citado 20 Jul 2016];29(4):[aprox. 5 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0864-21412015000400017&lng=es

3. Gutiérrez-Escobar M, López-Fernández R, Yanes-Seijo R, Llerena-Bermúdez M, Rosa-Rodríguez M, Olano-Rivalta M. Medios de enseñanza con nuevas tecnologías versus preparación de los docentes para utilizarlos. Medisur [Internet]. 2013 [citado 20 Jun 2016];11(2):[aprox. 8 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-897X2013000200009

4. Robert Jay GM, Robert Jay M, Robert Jay NE, Reus Speck MZ, Hamilthon Robert L. Los medios de enseñanza y su valor en la promoción y educación para la salud. Revista Información Científica [Internet]. 2014 [citado 17 Jul 2016]; 85(3). Disponible en: http://www.revinfcientifica.sld.cu/index.php/ric/article/view/1139/2426

5. Vidal Ledo M, del Pozo Cruz CR. Tecnología educativa, medios y recursos de enseñanza aprendizaje. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2008 [citado 16 Jul 2016];22(4):[aprox. 12 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?pid=S0864-21412008000400010&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt

6. Curbelo Mena PP, Águila Moya O, Ruiz Pérez PJ, Rodríguez Leiva T, Pérez Contreras H. Software educativo de Morfofisiología con enfoque interdisciplinario para tercer año de Licenciatura en Enfermería. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2013 [citado 17 Jul 2016];5(2):[aprox. 14 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2077-28742013000200016&lng=es

Submitted: September 2 2016.
Accepted: September 6 2016.