ABSTRACT
In today's digital era, teachers' possession of 21st-century digital skills and ICT competency is crucial for effectively engaging and educating students. This study aimed to assess the digital skills and ICT competency of junior high school teachers in Camiguin, with objectives to describe their characteristics, determine their level of digital skills, evaluate their ICT competency, examine the relationship between digital skills and ICT competency with their characteristics, and develop a technology-training program. The study used the descriptive-correlational method and included 250 junior high school teachers in Camiguin as respondents. A questionnaire by Lai et al. (2018) on 21st-century digital skills was used for measurement. Descriptive statistics and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were employed to treat the data.
The findings revealed that most respondents were female, aged between 26 and 36 years. The majority held the position of Teacher 1, had completed master's degree units, and had been teaching for 5 to 10 years. The teachers displayed a positive attitude towards technology and attended school-level training and seminars. Generally, teachers demonstrated high proficiency in various 21st-century digital skills, including technical, information, communication, collaborative, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Competence in various areas of ICT, such as technology operations and concepts, social and ethical considerations, pedagogical strategies, and professional development, was good. Significant relationships were identified between teachers' digital skills and their age, teaching experience, and attitude toward technology. Therefore, it is recommended that a technology-training program may be considered to address the diverse needs of teachers, taking into account their age, experience, and attitude towards technology.
Keywords: 21st-century digital skills and ICT competency
INTRODUCTION
It has become a challenge for teachers to help their learners improve their learning capacity, especially during the pandemic. So, integrating technology in delivering learning instruction is an important issue in many fields, including education. This is because technology has become the channel of knowledge and information in most countries. Our societies have gone through many transformations and innovations that have changed how people think, work, and live. As part of this, schools and other educational institutions that prepare students to live in "a knowledge society" must consider ICT integration in the classroom.
Therefore, it is important to determine teachers' technological preparedness in teaching with technology to provide intervention or training to teachers who lack ICT skills. There is a need to address this issue, for it will affect the school's performance, particularly in fulfilling the primary mandate of the learning institution. This is so basic that the impact cannot be taken for granted. The need to provide the necessary opportunities for the teachers who lack ICT skills to have it improved and upgraded is vital. Hence, this undertaking is a timely action for the given situation.
Integrating Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) in education refers to computer-based communication incorporated into daily classroom instruction. Teachers are the prime movers in using ICT in their daily classrooms to prepare students for the digital era. This is due to ICT's capability to provide a dynamic and proactive teaching-learning environment (Arnseth et al., 2017). While ICT integration aims to improve and increase the quality, accessibility, and cost-efficiency of imparting learning to students, it also refers to the benefits of networking the learning communities to face the challenges of current globalization (Albirini, 2016). The adoption process of ICT is not a single step but an ongoing and continuous step that fully supports teaching, learning, and information resources.
ICT integration in education generally means that teaching and learning are technology-based processes closely related to using learning technologies in schools. Because students are familiar with technology, they know that the issue of ICT integration in schools, specifically in the classroom, is vital within the technology-based environment. This is because technology in education contributes a lot to the academic aspects in which the benefits of ICT will lead to effective learning with the help and support of ICT elements and components. Almost all subjects starting from mathematics, science, languages, arts, cities, and other major fields, can be mastered more effectively through technology-based tools and equipment. In addition, ICT provides help and complementary support for teachers and students, involving effective learning with the help of computers to serve the purpose of learning aids.
Computers and technology are not replacing tools for quality teachers; they are considered add-on supplements needed for excellent teaching and learning. The advantages of ICT adaptation in education are crucial because, with the help of this, teaching and learning are not only occurring in the school environment but also can take place even if teachers and students are physically distant. However, ICT employment is not a one-step learning process but a continual learning process that provides a proactive teaching-learning environment.
From the above premise, the researcher is interested in investigating the level of preparedness in teaching with technology among secondary teachers in the public secondary schools in the Division of Camiguin for the School Year 2022- 2023.
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