PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE USE OF DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: A PERSPECTIVE OF COLOMBIAN TEACHERS

Technology is a tool that has changed the way we interact, and share information and knowledge, breaking the geographical barriers and bringing the world closer to us. Education is an area where technology intends to build a bridge for teachers and students to interact with resources related to the subjects they're interested in. In 2004, the Ministry of National Education (MNE) of Colombia, aware of the role of technology in education, created the Portal Colombia Aprende, a platform designed as a virtual space for the educational community. As a strategy to foster the Portal use, the MNE and the National University of Colombia are implementing a Virtual Pedagogical Assistance Program. The Programs' purpose is to give to the educational community (mainly teachers) an initial approach to the resources available at the Portal, as well as to provide a continuous support for their use within the classroom. To identify teachers' perceptions about the use of the Digital Educational Resources (DERs) available at the Portal Colombia Aprende, a survey based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology was designed. As a result of the survey design and validation process, a self-report instrument with 30 items (evaluated through a Likert scale) was consolidated to identify the teacher's perceptions about the use of Portal DERs. The results show that teachers have an overall positive perception towards the use of DER. Perform and effort expectancy, social influence and behavioral intention to use DER were the better rated categories, while items related to selfefficacy, anxiety and facilitating conditions reflected a negative perception of teachers. These last results are a valuable element to address different actions focused on socialize the DER available for the educational community and to foster its autonomous use.