The aim of the article is to highlight the key elements related to the implementation of new technologies in education from the perspective of the opinions and experiences of educators in the field in Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, Poland, Turkey, and Uruguay. The text compares issues related to attitudes towards the use of new media in education, experiences with different forms of e-learning, and the level of restrictions on the use of smartphones in school. These variables are juxtaposed with the self-assessment of digital competence and how cyberspace is used. The survey was conducted using a standardised survey questionnaire translated into the relevant national languages in the first half of 2019, and involved a sample of 873 teachers representing eight countries. On the basis of the pilot studies it was noted that: 1) Teachers from LAC and EU like to use digital media - this is a constant trend independent of geographical location; 2) Teachers note that new technologies are not always better than analogue didactic aids; 3) Teachers from selected countries (the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Turkey, and Uruguay) have much greater techno-optimism in themselves than teachers from Bolivia, Poland, Finland and Turkey in terms of the impact of ICT on student motivation and engagement; 4) In all countries teachers prefer free online courses (the different forms of e-learning are used most often by those in the Dominican Republic, and the least often in Bolivia and Poland); 5) In each country teachers who highly value their own digital competences and have a positive attitude towards new media use ICT much more actively; 6) There is also a global trend in that the extensive use of cyberspace (typical e-services) appears in combination with the extensive use of various forms of e-learning; 7) Teachers from Ecuador are most likely to want to ban the use of smartphones in schools. The most liberal approach in this respect is taken by the Uruguayans; 8) The knowledge of the conditions related to restricting the use of smartphones goes beyond the analyses related to the style of use and attitude towards new media. This article is the result of pilot studies conducted within the framework of the SMART ECOSYSTEM FOR LEARNING AND INCLUSION project carried out in selected Latin American, Caribbean (LAC) and European (EU) countries.

The Covid-19 pandemic started off a process that would drastically change the ways to teach and learn, deepening and accelerating the relationship between technologies and educational processes, reshaping the Higher Education scenario. The emergency challenged Universidad de la República, the main public university in Uruguay, which in turn designed and implemented Emergency Remote Teaching, that allowed the continuity of Higher Education, minimizing academic impacts. Within this frame of action, the Virtual Learning Environments Program elaborated a Contingency Plan for teaching and learning, with an approach that considered Pedagogy of Care and Critical Digital Pedagogy. One of the actions implemented was the Teacher Professional Development Course "Teaching Online in Emergency Conditions". This experience constitutes a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) -inspired course in Udelar. The article describes this innovative experience in Teacher Professional Development, presents the theoretical basis and methodological approach, the process and main decisions concerning the course design. Also, it describes the achievements of the experience, with the objective of identifying potential benefits of Teacher Professional Development initiatives based on MOOCs in the frame of emergency conditions. It analyzes teachers' contributions and interactions during the course to assess appropriation of educational principles, methodologies and tools applied to online course redesign in the light of Critical Digital Pedagogy and Pedagogy of Care. The initiative ended up being an enriching alternative to approaching Teacher Professional Development, emphasizing its relevance in the context of rapid response to the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching. This experience adds up empirical data, to a necessary accumulation that would in time, allow more generalizable appreciations.

The paper aims at presenting the most important indicators teacher preparation in the context of the developing information society. The text was written as part of the SELI project. It is the international study which seeks to answer the question about the factors determining the efficient use of ICT among the pedagogy students. This theoretical study joins the debate on the curricula and local, national and global conditions related to the education of teachers of the future. The text presents data from three countries from Latin America and the Caribbean region and one from Europe.The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is key for any society that wishes to develop and face the local and global challenges that arise every day. However, teachers play a fundamental role in ensuring that these technologies are taught and reach the entire population adequately. During this process, an important number of challenges and problems must be faced, as a result of the current context in which the Dominican Republic, as a developing country, finds itself. In the present work we make a brief description of the main challenges and defies faced by ICT teachers.In the section referring to Ecuador, a general outline of the academic education for preservice teachers is presented. The numeric data are presented about the education system and the preparation of future teachers. The legal grounds have also been described. While discussing the conditions in Ecuador, the authors focus on the technical aspects of education, like the use of e-learning technologies. They also refer briefly to the need for lifelong learning.The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the way the challenges of ICT are approached in preservice teacher education in Uruguay. Initially, some background information is provided about how preservice teacher education is organized for at the different levels. Secondly, the focus is on the way Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been included in the preservice teacher education and training curricula and the changes that this inclusion is undergoing. The overview shows a transitioning process, from a rather disperse and fragmented approach with a variety of courses, projects and programs, to a more consistent and centralized one. The article finishes with a few conclusions and ponders some Uruguay perspectives, joining an ongoing debate around unanswered questions and identified challenges.The Polish section presents several important changes associated with the reform of the education system, which affects the professional teacher preparation. The authors also present the examples of the academic curricula for Information Technologies and Media in Education courses carried out in the Pedagogical University of Cracow.Based on the short analyses, we have noticed that despite the geographical, language and cultural differences, teacher preparation in the area of ICT use shows many common features which are the global challenges. These shared elements include: legal systems preparing teachers to perform their profession, the development of digital literacy, modernisation of the academic curricula and technical infrastructure, and motivation to use ICT solutions among the preservice teachers.

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