Percepciones de docentes sobre el aprendizaje móvil en Educación Superior

Abstract

The general objective of this work is to examine the perceptions of professors about the use of mobile devices for academic purposes at the School of Law, Political and Social Sciences of the San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca University. The study ascribed to an interpretive paradigm, with a qualitative approach and a descriptive-transverse type of research. To collect the information, 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, and based on the grounded theory, four analytical categories were identified: knowledge and uses, attitudes and skills, advantages and disadvantages, as well as challenges and opportunities in the implementation of mobile learning. The main findings are: teachers have a concept of mobile learning based on experience and daily pedagogical application. More positive than negative attitudes were evidenced for the pedagogical integration of these ICTs. The importance of developing social and technical skills at the same time is emphasized, although they recognize that they are not fully trained, especially in the area of digital and didactic competences, a situation that should not be an excuse for updating. The advantages of mobility, access to information, communication and collaborative work are the most outstanding, in contrast there are problems of connectivity and access to the latest technology. Finally, it was argued that Bolivia is in a unique opportunity to modernize its educational system; the ICTs do not replace the teacher’s work, but pose the challenge of implementing urgent institutional, pedagogical and technological changes with the participation of the State and all educational actors.