Opportunities of the new educational space for higher education: third digital environment

Abstract

This theoretical-reflective study proposes an analysis of the changes generated in higher education, in the role of the teacher and the classroom, the inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies. A set of technologies enables the construction of a new social and cultural space, called the third environment, whose structure is different from of the natural (first environment) and urban (second environment) environments where social life has traditionally developed, and the education particularly. The methodology corresponds to the qualitative narrative systematic review, for which the documentary analysis technique was used. In this sense, the evolution of the use of technologies in education and the changes they have produced are presented, not only in the appearance of new teaching instruments, if not also affecting the structure of the social and educational space, which itself constitutes the third environment. This situation leads us to rethink the role of the teacher, the relevance of the area where is given the instruction, which in the third environment is the network and not the classroom, the training process that is not face-to-face but representational and where communication is asynchronous. Thus, the necessary changes are described in the classroom and also in the teacher to adapt and emerge in this new social and cultural space. Concludes on the urgent need to rethink the institutional and teaching praxis in light of the implications in the integration of the face-to-face and digital environments.