Tecnologías de Autoformación: Un Estudio Sobre Herramientas Digitales en Estudiantes Normalistas

The objective of this research is to identify the digital tools used by teacher trainees (TT) and those they are interested in learning. A cross-sectional descriptive design was employed, applying a questionnaire via WhatsApp to 214 teacher trainees out of a total population of 517, representing 41.39%, distributed as follows: Preschool Education (44.27%), Mathematics Education (75%), Spanish Education (35.80%), English Education (42.85%), and Telesecundaria Education (25.21%). The results indicate that WhatsApp is mainly used for educational communication and Facebook for social interaction. Applications such as Word and Canva are commonly used for presenting academic work and activities, while artificial intelligence applications are employed for academic production. The management of these applications results primarily from autonomous learning. Online study resources are used several times per week, and Android was identified as the most widely used operating system (51%). A high level of interest was identified in specialized tools according to each training area: GeoGebra for mathematics, Canva and educational games for Spanish, Canva and video editing tools for preschool education, YouTube and educational platforms for telesecundaria, and translators for English learning. These findings reveal a gap between general-purpose digital tools and the need for discipline-specific pedagogical technologies. The study concludes that it is necessary to formally integrate training in relevant digital tools into the curriculum to meet the professional profile requirements of 21st-century teachers.