Rethinking the university: didactics, an option to go beyond the inclusion of digital technologies

Abstract

The pandemic took society as a whole by surprise, practically paralyzing during a rather long while the activities that were carried out on a daily basis. Education and university teaching work was suspended. The almost immediate instrumental response was to rely on digital technologies to continue teaching, leaving approximately 25% of higher education students outside. Nevertheless, the university has not taken advantage of this year to study the changes it needs to make to link up with the demands of 21st century society. The pandemic showed one side of a crisis of the institution that has lost its way, as it is currently working to improve its indicators in quality programs but abandoning the analysis of its civilizing function. In its centenary history the University has always made the structural changes that each era demands; quite the opposite, at this moment it is only proposed that it is enough to incorporate digital technologies to transform itself, without analyzing the reasons why expository classes remain in its classrooms. This essay raises the need to review the fundamental crisis it is going through, in order to restructure itself according to the conditions of the 21st century. This includes the transformation of its teaching, based on six didactic principles, since its future cannot only be chained to a screen.