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Digital systems are increasingly becoming central to the running of contemporary schools. A range of digital tools are also adopted by teachers to facilitate face to face teaching and learning and more recently to accommodate remote schooling. Similarly, digital technologies lie at the heart of how students support their learning but also interact with peers. These digital practices raise questions in relation to teachers' own critical digital literacies as well as their role in developing students' critical digital literacies. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that aimed to develop an understanding of teachers' current experiences and future needs relating to critical digital literacies within school contexts. Drawing on empirical data collected during focus group interviews with primary and secondary school teachers in Finland, Italy, Spain and the UK this paper looks at teachers' perceptions of critical digital literacies and explores whether and how these are manifested in their practices. Findings revealed that different dimensions of critical digital literacies were more prevalent for each national group and highlighted the disjuncture between how Critical digital literacies (CDL) is defined and perceived in academic research with a stronger emphasis on the "critical" and between the more "twenty-first century skills" oriented policy agendas and curricula which inform teachers' practice. The paper goes on to discuss the implications of these findings and identifies gaps in relation to teachers' understandings of critical digital literacies. Last, it offers original insights for future policymaking, research and practice regarding the challenges of supporting teachers with developing critical digital literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyse the evolutionary context of the introduction of technology in Portuguese schools, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, and to identify the digital competences of Portuguese teachers at different educational levels. The analysis, qualitative and quantitative in nature, allowed us to conclude that technologies had a slow diffusion in Portuguese schools, because of the scarcity of resources and residual investment in teacher training, giving the use of technology in school a more irregular and playful character rather than truly integrated in pedagogical practices to promote the quality of learning. Although in recent years there has been still some conservatism in the use of technology, very focused on its instrumental use, there have been more practices with pedagogical intent and more focused on the active participation of students, also noting the growing importance of teacher training in this field of digital technologies, with the aim of making teachers more competent and fluent in the pedagogical use of digital. Furthermore, the study focused on the teachers' perception of their digital competences in three dimensions: the teachers' professional and pedagogical competences and the students' competences from the DigCompEdu framework and the self-assessment questionnaire of digital competences built from the same framework - DigCompEdu Check-In. The analysis of the answers obtained in this questionnaire (collected from the participation of 434 teachers of Basic and Secondary Education and 118 of Higher Education) showed that teachers need to increase their levels of digital proficiency through specific training, since they present, globally, a moderate level of digital proficiency - level B1 -Integrators- being the areas 4 - Evaluation - and 6 - Digital empowerment of students, the ones that present the greatest weaknesses.

the role of technology as a catalyst for change and development has become irrefutable in various language learning settings. However, not all language teachers are mindful about using technology in their language teaching practices, owing to their lack of adequate digital competencies. The purpose of this research is to promote digital competencies and related components among the study participants. This investigation applies the Framework of Competency Profile for digital teachers. The results were obtained by quantitative analysis, using data collected from a sample of 151 language learners, all enrolled in BA English language programmes across 8 universities in Saudi Arabia. These learners are considered pre-service English language teachers, as they are near graduation. The findings demonstrated participants' highest and lowest digital competences, leading the researcher to identify practical implications, particularly regarding how to conduct training to compensate for low competencies. The findings also revealed that there is no correlation between levels of study and digital competencies. There was also no influence of gender on digital competencies. From these findings, the researcher concluded that the identification of competencies is essential for instructors, educators, administrators, and policymakers, in order to design more effective and appropriate training programmes for teachers in each context. Finally, the findings provided realistic analysis of the components and sub-components related to digital competencies among the target audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The paper presents an overview of challenges and demands related to teachers’ digital skills and technology integration into educational content and processes. The paper raises a debate how technologies have created new skills gaps in pre-service and in-service teacher training and how that affected traditional forms of teacher education. Accordingly, it is discussed what interventions might be applicable to different contexts to address these challenges. It is argued that technologies should be viewed both as the field where new competences should be developed and at the same time as the method used in developing learning environments for teacher students.

The renewed 2017 EU Higher Education Agenda expresses the intention to "develop and implement a digital readiness model" to assist higher education institutions, their staff, and students in implementing digital learning strategies and maximising the potential of cutting‐edge technologies such as learning analytics. The anticipated digital transformation will only be successful if higher education institutions and teachers strengthen their digital competences and skills and "become" digitally competent. Many of the incentives for these processes were prompted by the unexpected Covid‐19 crisis, which highlighted the importance of higher education teachers' digital skills in the need to digitise the higher education environment. The Covid‐19 crisis experience and the accelerating development of digitalisation are changing both the conditions for education and education itself, which is why higher education teachers face the challenging task of lifelong development of digital competences. To complete this task, they must learn about information and communication technology (ICT)/digital technologies and how they can be integrated into the pedagogical process. The challenge for higher education teachers is to develop ICT‐based teaching. This is not about how higher education teachers (and students) master ICT, but about how to make ICT one of the tools for carrying out pedagogical activities in general. The article addresses the development of digital competences among higher education teachers as a critical issue in the renovation of higher education didactics. To that end, various digital competence models and concepts are presented. Among other things, the European Digital Competence Framework for Teachers is highlighted. The case study of activities aimed at developing digital competences of higher education teachers at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and thus higher education teachers working in the field of education for public administration. Based on the analysis of activities, we discover an increased interest in the development of digital competences, which is reflected in various forms of institutional (university) support for educators (e.g. training), as well as an increased interest in the development of digital competences among higher education teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an overview of challenges and demands related to teachers' digital skills and technology integration into educational content and processes. The paper raises a debate how technologies have created new skills gaps in pre-service and in-service teacher training and how that affected traditional forms of teacher education. Accordingly, it is discussed what interventions might be applicable to different contexts to address these challenges. It is argued that technologies should be viewed both as the field where new competences should be developed and at the same time as the method used in developing learning environments for teacher students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, school-related closures and the hasty transition into homeschooling, parents were required to take a more active and positive role than ever before in collaboration with their children's educators. Thus, with this unprecedented situation, parents became an important source of information during the pandemic. Considering this unique event, the study at hand aims to explore parents' perspectives regarding primary and upper secondary school teachers' digital competence, digital differentiated instruction, and feedback during the first SARS-CoV-2 school shutdown in Germany. Additionally, the study examined parents' evaluation of teachers' characteristics. Results reveal that parental ratings were generally positive. Moreover, parents with children attending primary schools perceived and evaluated teachers' digital competence and digital differentiated teaching highly, and perceived significantly more teacher feedback than parents whose children attend upper secondary school. In addition, positive correlations were found between parents' evaluations of teachers' feedback and how motivated, appreciative, and devoted teachers are perceived to be. Practical implications and further research areas are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]