Didactics of the use of ICT and traditional teaching aids in municipal higher education institutions

Issues related to the use of teaching aids in Higher Education are currently going through constant revision and rethinking due to the rapid advancement of science and technology. Their uses have significantly changed after the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within the educational field. One of the main tasks to be performed by didactics in Higher Education teaching today is precisely to deepen into rational and effective class-teaching means, understood in a broad sense: from traditional teaching aids to ICTs. This reality has materialized in the current blended learning model which characterizes the New Cuban University. Therefore, it was considered appropriate to characterize the present-day teaching practice, based on the use of teaching aids in Cuba's university classrooms, as part of the second stage within the research project "Improvement of the universalization process in Municipal Higher Education Institutions in the Havana province. Generalization of results and development of contextualized innovative experiences." The study was carried out at eleven 'Physical Culture' Municipal Higher Education Institutions (MHEIs) in two academic periods (2007-2009 and 2009-2011). A descriptive methodology consisting of observation, surveys and the "Osgood Semantic Differential" scale as main methods and techniques was applied. The results obtained showed that teachers make an occasional, non-systematic and reluctant use of teaching aids during the teaching-learning process, especially when it comes to ICT-based teaching aids.