Technology-mediated Secondary Education in Paraguay: An Exploratory Study

Researchers around the world have amassed vast amounts of information about ICT use in education. This study focuses on ICT use in high school in Paraguay and the changes that took place with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has forced governments to take quarantine decisions, confine people to their homes and delay daily activities in all social and productive spheres. In Paraguay, in terms of education, classes were suspended at all educational levels, forcing the authorities to establish contingency plans. The National Government, through the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) established an Education Plan in times of Pandemic with the Project "Your school at home" which established training mechanisms for teachers in the country for the development of classes in the virtual modality of Distance Education, in addition to creating written didactic materials, audios and videos, plans and evaluation guides for the different subjects of the Secondary Education courses, available in an online portal as digital resources and freely accessible to the actors of the educational community. Through focus group interviews with secondary teachers from several regions in the country, issues related to the effects of the pandemic and government goals were discussed. Results evidence an urgent need for greater coverage and access to the internet, technological tools, and teacher training in such tools and in the didactics of Distance Education.