E-inclusion versus digital divide – a challenge for Romanian educational system within the context of CORONAVIRUS pandemic growth

doi>10.24250/JPE/1/2020/SLT/AMP

Abstract

The educational system in Romania cannot keep pace with education and technology. Technologies are omnipresent in human networking but they are not operated similarly in the training and educational systems. Although teachers admit the importance and necessity of new technologies in the educational process, these means are barely used in the teaching-learning activities. More often than not, teachers turn to digital means in order to search and prepare information materials and not as educational resources to be exploited in the classroom. In order to benefit from a flexible and open learning system, ICT potential must be fully exploited thus improving professional training and educational systems and facilitating their adaptation to the digital world. The aim of these provisions is to improve education efficiently through promoting personalized learning which is more beneficial and more efficient. Pedagogical integration of open educational resources is a priviledged modality to create a digital inclusive educational environment, whose potential can be exploited in the interest of learners and for diminishing the negative effects of digital divide. The quick pace of growth of Coronavirus pandemic worldwide during the period December 2019 – March 2020, generated complex effects on the educational level, too. Educational factors (teachers, pupils, students, parents, non-formal education agents etc.) faced the prospect to discover another educational universe, unknown for some of them. The digital /virtual educational environment became and was legally defined as the only educational environment for the entire Romanian educational system for an indefinite period of time.