The digital transformation in schools.

It is a mistake to think that digital transformation in schools is about providing students with a computer and having them connected all the time, isolated from their surroundings. It shouldn’t be this way with digitalization in schools, nor should it be the case with the use of mobile phones by students, both inside and outside the school.

However, we must be aware that technology is advancing extremely rapidly; we only need to analyze how much time has passed since a technology emerged until it was used by 100 million users. Let’s take the conventional telephone as an example, which took 75 years to reach 100 million users, compared to the mobile phone, which took only 16 years to be used by the same number of people. But the adaptation of technology has increased exponentially in recent years; Twitter took only 5 years, Facebook 4.5 years, WhatsApp 3.5 years, and Instagram just 2.5 years. And the latest and most surprising has been ChatGPT, which in just 2 months has reached 100 million users.

The digital transformation of schools aims to provide equipment, infrastructure, and above all, knowledge, so that all students, upon completing their educational cycle, have digital skills that allow them to enter the job market without any problems. At the same time, we empower teachers with more knowledge through continuous training.

This primarily involves making significant investments in infrastructure, such as computers, servers, local connectivity networks, whether by cable or Wi-Fi, connecting schools to high-speed internet, interactive screens, careful management of cybersecurity, etc. And also creating good support tools to maintain all this infrastructure.

Likewise, it also involves the massive introduction of digital resources in schools, such as e-books, online educational platforms, interactive videos, and simulations that enrich the traditional learning experience. And, of course, educational management platforms and collaboration tools that are essential to foster collaboration and camaraderie among students and teachers. Tools such as video conferences, online forums, and real-time collaboration applications.

Our society and, consequently, the teaching model are also changing due to the massive growth of data and information that we have and are creating every day. We only need to see the disproportionate growth of data we’ve had in the last 20 years. This has not only posed a technological challenge on how to store, process, and analyze this data in real-time but has also led to an exponential increase in knowledge, requiring us to assume this increase in knowledge and data during the same teaching hours.

This is where digital transformation in education also helps; the implementation of online courses, virtual classes, and continuous training programs assist students in their daily lives. But above all, the big change is in the personalization of learning, with the implementation of technologies that allow adapting educational content, such as generative artificial intelligence, which can offer a more personalized approach according to the individual needs of each student.

The digital transformation in education, ultimately, seeks to improve accessibility, efficiency, and the quality of the educational process, preparing students to face the challenges of an increasingly digitized world. Additionally, it promotes the development of essential technological and digital skills for success in contemporary society.

All of this is not simple and requires a clear and consensus-based strategy, a very long-term commitment, and significant effort economically, politically, and socially. The development of a long-term project that consolidates this model is vital for society; otherwise, we will face a high level of digital illiteracy leading to persistent poverty in our country.

As we can see, technologies are evolving and reaching many more users faster, and our society is voraciously embracing them. Therefore, adapting educational systems and the digital transformation of education are among the main challenges we face as a society.

Sergi Marcén i López