TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ROMANIA

Abstract

"The pandemic caused by the novel Coronavirus has forcibly introduced digital technologies in the teaching and learning process all over the world. Even if teacher and students preparation for this way of teaching has not sufficient, all participants have succeeded in a rather short amount of time to adapt to online teaching and use the myriad of applications, websites and online teaching and learning platforms. The present article evidentiates the impact of digital technologies in education, therefore the study area that incorporates it is education technology. The idea from which this study originated is the way and rapidness that teachers managed to integrate digital technologies in teaching and to adapt their methods and strategies so that they combine all the advantages offered by online teaching with the contents to be taught. The main objective of the article has been the identification of the main applications, websites and platforms that the teachers consider useful, the level of usage during exclusive online teaching or hybrid teaching and the advantages and disadvantages of using digital resources on short-term and long-term. The research method is based on the teachers responses to the online questionnaire, on a qualitative research. The present study is structured in four main sections. The first section presents the context of introducing technologies in the teaching-learning process caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The second section consists of a list of applications, platforms and educational websites used by Romanian teachers during exclusive online teaching and learning and developing opportunities offered to students and teachers. The third section presents the opinions of teaching staff in a private school from Romania regarding the positive and negative impact of digital technologies over the teaching and learning process. The last section comprises conclusions & recommendations for the main stakeholders. The main results obtained following the research show that the teachers have used and continue to use a series of apps, websites and educational platforms in teaching, even if the teaching is hybrid or with physical presence. Using digital resources has advantages such as class interaction, high interest in children, but also disadvantages (such as limited resources, internet connectivity, increased time in preparing lessons)."