Alfabetización digital tecnológica: formación de voluntariado

Technological digital literacy: volunteer training

Abstract

The digital divide, against which different governments have been struggling since the beginning of the century, covered in the development goals of different international organizations such as UNESCO, still causes enormous differences between the people who have access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) and those who do not; between those who have the devices, but do not have access to fast connections; or between those people who, in spite of having both, do not possess enough training to know how to use or exploit them properly. This phenomenon has become even more pressing due to the global health crisis provoked by the spread of the COVID-19 and its social, political, economic, and educational ramifications. Despite the enormous governmental efforts, the consequences of this severe crisis must be faced from multiple fronts, since there are multiple and varied ramifications of its effects upon everyday life: it is with good reason that after the lockdowns people started speaking of “the new normal”. And this necessarily depends on the democratization of technology and literacy in its use. This work’s principal objective is to show the results of the execution of a digital literacy project through volunteers with people affected by the digital divide, which has been implemented in the subject “TIC aplicadas a la Educación I” [EN: ICTs implemented in Education I] of the Teacher in Early Childhood Education Degree of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), during the 2019-2020 course. Through a humanizing and affective model, these female and male volunteers have taught people who were chosen for this project. The results show that this model can be a very interesting tool to fight the lack of digital literacy in older people.