# Emerging Technologies and Their Link to Digital Competence in Teaching
## 2 Materials and Methods  
This research is descriptive in nature and its main objective is to assess the impact of emerging technologies on teachers' digital competence in teaching. Secondary objectives are also pursued, such as assessing teachers' level of digital competence and finding out what kind of emerging technologies they use and to what extent they are able to use them. In order to respond to the objectives set and collect data, the \"DigCompEdu Check-In\" questionnaire, a tool that fosters self-evaluation and reflection of teachers on aspects related to new technologies, was telematically implemented; specifically, the version translated into Spanish [7]. The tool used is made up of twenty-two items that are subdivided into six fields consisting of the following:  
* Professional engagement: relating to organisational communication, professional collaboration, reflective practice, and teachers' digital literacy. * Digital assets: the ability to select, create, and modify assets and to manage, exchange, and protect data. * Digital pedagogy: how, when, and why to use digital technologies to help maximise their benefits, as well as the ability to monitor activities in collaborative environments and foster collaborative and self-directed learning. * Assessment and feedback: skills relating to assessment strategies, the analysis of evidence, and evidence for the identification of learners in need of additional support, as well as the use of technology to provide feedback to learners. * Empowering learners: favouring accessibility and inclusion of learners with regard to new technologies, offering a variety of options to encourage differentiation and personalisation of learning according to the qualities of the learners, and the use of new technologies in order to increase the active participation of learners in the classroom. * Facilitating students' digital competence: establishing the teacher's ability to teach students how to assess the trustworthiness of information searched online, to foster digital communication, collaboration, and the creation of digital content through responsible and safe online use, and to encourage creative problem solving using new technologies. In order to measure and evaluate the items in the different fields, a Likert scale of five intervals was used, which allows teachers to reflect on their educational practice by selecting the extent to which they identify with the given statement [7]. In addition to the dimensions described above, the online questionnaire collected socio-demographic data: gender, age, teaching experience, type of contract that links them to their educational institution (permanent, temporary, associate or full-time), type of school where they work, perceived socio-economic level of students, whether their school participates in digitisation programmes, the hours they dedicate to the use of technology in the classroom, the digital tools used, the perceived level of digital citizenship competence, whether they actively use social networks, and the working conditions that favour the use of new technologies. A new section on emerging technologies was also added, asking whether they have used any type of emerging technology (augmented, virtual, or mixed reality), and the extent to which they have used it. In order to calculate the level of Digital Competence in Teaching, the levels set were taken as a reference [7], assessing the answers given from 0 to 4 points. This allows a level to be established for each of the fields as well as one at a global level; these are grouped into three categories, low level: A1 (beginner) and A2 (explorer); intermediate level: B1 (integrative) and B2 (expert); and high: C1 (leader) and C2 (pioneer). In order to collect data properly, the validated tool was distributed in electronic format, requesting participation on a voluntary basis, and guaranteeing at all times the data protection of the participants and their responses, ensuring their anonymity.