The arrival of COVID-19 was a radical turnaround for the Saint Augustine College of Valladolid City and for the entire educational sector, which, overnight, had to adapt to an unusual scenario that no one had planned for and for which few were prepared. Teachers and students had to change the school’s classroom for an online education and settle for distance training.
Could the pandemic be prevented? Could we have acted differently in the educational field? A better response could possibly have been given if the centres and people had had a different mindset and if a real transformation of education had been selected.
Augustinian recollect Juan Luis González, principal of the educational center, says:
“One thing is clear: we are heading for unprecedented and uncertain transformations. In the coming years these transformations will have a full impact on the way we think, live, work and relate, which will have an impact on education, which will surely not be able to continue as it is now. If there is one thing we need to do, it is to prepare our students for life, a life that changes very quickly and in which technology will occupy an important position, because after what we have experienced, technology has helped to improve communication, has facilitated certain learnings and helped us integrate students from their homes. The introduction of ICT is unstoppable in an increasingly digital society.”
Through ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) creativity, cooperation, incentivizing the experiences and emotional balance of young people will have to be encouraged. And this is where the role of the teacher should not be forgotten who, in addition to his professional capacity, has to focus on promoting emotional skills. Because the teacher does not just assign and correct exercises, which he also does, but first and foremost accompanies, supervises, adapts and facilitates learning. Something that goes beyond mere content and cold computing.
However, that is not something just improvised. To achieve this and succeed, it must be based on a methodological change, the basis of which is the training and that begins with the Teachers’ Cloister,changing its methodology with adequate digitization and learning to work as a team, fostering coordination, help and collaboration. Our society is based on great individualism and it is essential to implement interdisciplinary tasks and projects.
Fortunately, the Saint Augustine College of Valladolid, Spain had opted for the digitization of the classrooms and the methodological change that entails, which has placed it in a privileged position when it comes to responding to the pandemic and its effects. In fact, the Ministry of Education of the Junta de Castilla y Leónhas very recently awarded the college level 5 of Excellence in the field of New Technologies.
CoDiCe ICT is the adaptation to the model of the Certification procedure of the Junta de Castilla y León to the trends and models that the European Union is launching through the “European Framework for Digitally Competent Organizations”, becoming CoDiCe ICT (Digital Competence Center in ICT). One more achievement and a source of pride for all those who educate in St. Augustine College.





