Developing pre-service teachers’ digital communication and competences through service learning for bilingual literacy

Learning environments have become increasingly digital in recent decades, requiring teachers and students to develop general digital competences across all educational systems and stages. This also means that for future teachers, professional digital competencies are a valuable asset that enables them to work with the technologies already fully integrated in schools and embedded in most curricula. This paper describes the use of digital communication technology throughout the different stages of a Service Learning Project, involving 2nd and 3rd year students from the Degree in Primary Education at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid. Students and their teachers involved in the project use specific digital communication tools which favour the interaction and completion of the project goal: supporting literacy programmes in two languages for underprivileged students in two local schools. This paper analyses the tools used in the different stages of the project, the digital competencies they are related to and their suitability for similar Service Learning Projects.