Non-face-to-face educational processes: today´s perspectives for the ways of teaching and learning

Abstract

Contingence and restrictive measures to tackle the grave public health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic forced educational organizations to implement actions that could be performed in a non-face-to-face manner. This scenario led teachers in general to doubts and uncertainties regarding technologically mediated instruction, resulting in a major shuffling of terms and definitions used to name pedagogical practices that emerged at the time of the pandemic. With this in mind, the purpose of this article is to discuss the different methodological proposals that can be employed in non-face-to-face teaching/learning processes their major characteristics and potential qualities, in order to contribute to better understand the feasibility of implementing, using and tailoring these pedagogical strategies to several educational contexts. This theoretical study indicates how important it is to distinguish conventional distance education from emergence remote instruction, as the teachers´ credibility in non-face-to-face education in a post-pandemic world is expected to play a remarkable role for the success of educational processes mediated by digital technologies. Implementing effectively pedagogical strategies such as the hybrid instruction appears as a promising alternative to expand possibilities for the contemporary educational processes. Considering the many possible paths for education nowadays, it is important to make political, epistemological and methodological choices that lead to experiences of formation that are creative and original, critical, immersive and socially involved. It is paramount to try to pedagogically redefine the use of digital technologies as well as to understand the possibilities and potential of varied strategies, techniques and methodologies which, with diverse educational scenarios either in-person or online, can be combined, adapted and improved.