The Digital Space Dimension in Education. A Review on a Pilot Research

Abstract

Abstract Following a short review on the importance and challenges of digital education, we review some of the findings of a study which we conducted on the basis of an online survey among students of the teacher-training programme at the University of Debrecen (for the purposes of a pilot project) in 2019. The 75 respondents were between 18 and 23 years of age and mostly students of humanities and natural sciences. The survey is obviously not representative, its function being to serve as a ground of a pilot survey to further our work and to extend it to other universities. Among others, the results show that 62.7% of the students learnt the use of digital tools by self-improvement; the majority of future teachers (85.3%) are willing and motivated to use ICT tools in the context of education. The question regarding the importance of reading in a digital world showed that almost each of the respondents considered reading to remain an important activity. In order to make reading attractive, respondents emphasized the need to renew compulsory literature and to use digital tools for reading.