Plataformas Educativas Digitales durante la Pandemia

Education has changed! In the 21st century, teaching-learning paradigms have evolved to become completely different from 20 years ago, at least as far as technology is concerned. Nowadays, we can educate ourselves via mobile phone, using different platforms that have been designed exclusively for this purpose. Furthermore, there are also new and revolutionary tools such as artificial intelligence and robotics; their inclusion in our daily lives is undeniable. We could question whether these digital tools are actually useful or not, since they can often be just "passing fads." For example, Sánchez-Vera (2021) points out a particular case: in 2014, a study was conducted on the use of digital whiteboards; The results showed that 87.1% of teachers used these boards to explain and answer questions in class, using them in the same way as traditional chalkboards. Various tools have incredible potential, but we often use them for the same old things. In the midst of the pandemic, we all began to use the concept of e-learning (or even the term m-learning) without knowing its true scope. Many terms were coined to try to organize the methodological chaos that was experienced, but this, in the words of Prendes-Espinosa and Sánchez-Vera (2021), researchers at the University of Murcia, demonstrates the educational system's lack of preparation for pedagogically adapting to online education, as well as the absurd perception that in-person learning is good, what counts, and virtual learning is not. During the pandemic, the solution to the health emergency was a total quarantine of the entire system, including the education system. This resulted in converting in-person learning into virtual learning, that is, teaching the same way as in class, but through a computer. Let's think about the reasons why videoconferences are our favorites: they allow us to do the same things we've always done in class. That's fine, it's acceptable, but we can't say we're in a virtual teaching-learning environment because the virtual world goes far beyond what we think. This paper analyzes the digital platforms used by faculty at the Salesian Polytechnic University during the COVID-19 health emergency from a student perspective through an exploratory analysis.