Analysis of digital teaching materials provided from an open website: the case of the Canary Islands

ABSTRACT This article provides the results of the analysis of a sample of the digital contents or teaching materials for Primary Education existing in a website called Eco Escuela 2.0 promoted by the educational administration (Educational Counselling of the Canary Islands Government), characterized by the free access and use for the teachers. The main purpose is to perform a material analysis oriented towards the end of the Primary Education in different subjects. The methodology used in the study consisted in content analysis. To this end, an instrument-guide for the analysis of the sample has been prepared. The results of the investigation detect activities that aim to favor the resolution of problems, experimentation or simulation. Its design is acceptable, although qualitatively improvable: some are developed by teachers, thus they lack of the visual appeal of commercial materials. Most are closed and non-modifiable, created for specific contents and purposes, although they are adapted to different learning paces. In general, they do not provide final activities and some of them finish with the accomplishment of deliverable group tasks, elaboration of materials, discussion of ideas or task presentation. The cultural or functional diversity of gender is not present in these materials and although the access is good, optimization must be improved for all types of mobile device screens.