Educational technology and teachers: effective teaching time in the classroom during the practicum

The use of technological tools is a key factor for the practice of foreign languages. However, teachers require strategies to improve efficiency in their use. This study aims to identify teaching strategies to optimize class time when using educational technical tools (ETT) in the context of the practices of EFL teachers in the province of Manabí, Ecuador. The work adopts the postmodern paradigm and the mixed method approach. The participants are 42 teachers in training from the National and Foreign Language Pedagogy Program at a national university. 53% women, 45% men and 2% other sexual identities. Ages range between 20 and 22 years. The ad hoc instruments for data collection are a survey, a class observation form and an interview guide. The results show (1) the most frequent difficulties of participants in installing ETT in language practices, (2) knowledge of participants regarding ETT and frequency of use, (3) experiences of participants to improve efficiency in the use of ETT. Among the results, five strategies are presented that can contribute to the improvement of teaching time management when teachers use ETT. It is concluded that the factors to be improved in teachers in training are (a) teachers' knowledge about hardware configuration, (b) knowledge of educational applications and (c) the quality of the Internet connection.