Digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic: Opportunities and challenges for environmental educators in Barcelona

Abstract

The COVID-19 lockdowns forced environmental educators to increase the use of digital technologies, bringing to the forefront the need for critical research on the implications for teaching practice. Through interviews in Barcelona, we explore how environmental educators perceived related opportunities and difficulties and how these connect with their competencies in environmental education. Non-formal educators reported a more comprehensive range of digital tools than those in formal settings and particularly highlighted the difficulty of sustaining the impact on environmental learning when replacing face-to-face methods with digital technologies. Interviewees commonly perceived motivational challenges. We discuss how these experiences were less related to educators’ previous use of digital technologies and more to mastering specific competencies that can help them deal with emotions.

Keywords:

• education for sustainable development
• educators
• ICT
• emotions
• competencies

Acknowledgements

We thank Mar Satorras and Maria Heras for their valuable help to pilot the interview guide.

Additional information

Funding

A.C. has been funded by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya through a Doctoral Thesis Grant. I.R.-M. gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Spanish State Research Agency through a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ research fellowship (RYC-2015-17676).