Abstract

This study addresses the importance of digital literacy and developing digital technology skills among teachers. This is a qualitative case study based on a digital skills survey conducted among the faculty of the National Experimental Security University (UNES) in Venezuela. The survey was scored according to the Cronbach Alpha Scale and had a reliability index of 0.75. The objective of the survey was to determine the digital competencies and application of these competencies in the classroom by UNES teaching staff. The results of this study allowed us to confirm that most of the UNES teaching staff studied lack basic digital knowledge and showed strong weaknesses in appropriately developing their digital skills. A high percentage of the population group studied expressed a certain level of rejection of the learning curve required to embrace technology as part of their pedagogical strategy. Overall, 37.3% of the representative population stated that they lacked basic digital skills, had never received any digital oriented training and were only versed in using more traditional software such as Power Point. Among the different recommendations made was to plan teacher training workshops in the use of educational software and educational software design, for example, to be update teaching skills required for effective use of the Internet in educational settings.

Keywords Digital technology competencies and skills; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); learning strategies; attitude; management; tools; educational software; computer initiation; new technologies; digital literacy; digital learning curve