Lucila Pesce

Mercedes Carvalho

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                                                                              Revista Eletrônica de Educação, v. 7, n. 2, nov. 2013. ISSN 1982-7199. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brasil. Introduction ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction  EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY: CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES  Dear  reader,  the  thematic  issue  “Education  and  Technology:  challenges  and possibilities”,  which  is  now  being  presented,  brings  together  studies  of  researchers  from  several Brazilian and foreign universities, and deals with a candent topic in studies and researches on current corporate organizations. The studies that comprise this thematic issue seek to broaden the discussion about the incorporation of digital information and communication technologies (DICT) in current social practices, in particular those carried out in the field of education. The set of texts reveals, in the multiple voices of the authors, reflections on the role of DICT  in  contemporary  life,  trying  to  uncover  the  limits  and  possibilities  of  these  interfaces  in  the constitution of social subjects, refuting fetishistic positions that demonize or enthrone them as a panacea of the challenges to be faced. The  articles  deal  with  researches  that  focus  on  a  myriad  of  topics  related  to  the integration of DICT in the formation of contemporary social subjects and are organized around four themes:  a)  digital  information  and  communication  technologies  and  basic  education,  b)  digital information  and  communication  technologies  and  teacher  training,  c)  digital  information  and communication  technologies  and  higher  education,  d)  digital  information  and  communication technologies and contemporary social practices in education. In  the  four  articles  that  comprise  the  first  thematic  group  -  digital  information  and communication technologies and basic education - Valdinei Cezar Cardoso, Leidiane de Mello Esprisigo and  Lilian  Akemi  Kato  sign  the  article  entitled  “Different  semiotic  representations  produced  by elementary  school  children from  digital  games”. The  authors  comment  on  a  research  that  aimed  to identify,  through  records  obtained  from  activities  mediated  by  digital  games,  possible  mental representations made by children in the first grade of Elementary School. The article “Youth and adults in the schooling process and the digital technologies”, written  by  Bianca  Maria  Santana  de  Brito,  investigates  the  presence  of  DICT  in  Youth  and  Adult Education, from the way students claim to use the mentioned technologies and the possible relations of these uses with the educational process and the learning they experience. In  the  article  “Building  virtual  trees  of  possibilities:  what  can  students  learn  by discussing combinatorial relations?”, Juliana Azevedo and Rute Elizabete de Souza Rosa Borba analyze the  influence  of  building  trees  of  possibilities  in  solving  combinatorial  problems  with  the  use  of  an educational software. Closing  the  first  thematic  group,  in  an  article  entitled  “Children  literacy  using technological resources”, Valéria de Alvarenga Pimenta Vilas Boas and Celso Vallin report a case study, aiming  to  identify  whether  the  use  of  computers,  with  activities  developed  for  the  initial  teaching  of reading and writing, specifically the correspondences between phonemes and graphemes, might help a specific group of students who had not yet reached the level of alphabetic writing. Regarding  the  eight  articles  that  comprise  the  second  thematic  group  -  digital information and communication technologies and teacher training - Rosa Maria Rigo and Maria Inês Corte Vitória, in the paper “Daily classroom: from presential to virtual, educational resources in constant review”, present the results of the records described in the reflective journals of public school teachers who participated of TelEduc. Eduardo S. Junqueira, Adriana Paula Amorim and Carla Sousa Braga sign the article “Theoretical reflections and practices related to new literacies and digital technologies: a teacher training report”,  which  brings  as  corpus  the  training  experience  performed  under  the  Mais  Educação  (More Education) Program from the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The discussion articulates three instances: the  sociocultural  perspective  of  cyberculture,  the  institutional  dimension  of  the  school  and  the professional and personal spheres of the teacher. In  the  article  “The  role  of  teacher  trainer  in  training  action:  an  experience  in constructionist approach”, Ádamo Duarte de Oliveira and Suely Scherer present part of a research that analyzed the role of the teacher trainer in an action of continuing education, experienced by a group of ten elementary school mathematics teachers (working from 6th to 9th grade), and organized to discuss the use of educational laptops that were distributed in schools covered by the project Um Computador por Aluno/UCA (One Computer per Student), in the city of Terenos, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Débora  Cristina  Massetto,  Marcia  Rozenfeld  Gomes  de  Oliveira  and  Maria  Iolanda Monteiro, in the paper “Online support processes in teacher training and their progress”, propose a                                                                               Revista Eletrônica de Educação, v. 7, n. 2, nov. 2013. ISSN 1982-7199. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brasil. Introduction ________________________________________________________________________________________________ discussion  on  the  support  offered  to  teachers  in  its  different  forms:  programs,  courses  and  other resources that use online support in order to minimize the difficulties and different demands found in the profession. Adriana Rocha Bruno and Luciano Nery Ferreira Filho, in the article “Appropriations of digital and network technologies by teachers: experiences in the public schools of Ceará, Brazil”, state that, in a social setting mediated by digital culture, or cyberculture, which requires teachers to have new perspectives  on  their  pedagogical  practice  and  knowledge  related  to  the  use  of  digital  and  network resources, Brazil still has a significant number of professionals on the sidelines of this process. In the paper “Multireferential practices of online education: expressions of a research”, Rosemary dos Santos and Edméa Oliveira dos Santos, through the experiences in inter-institutional research  “Cyberculture  in  the  age  of  social  networking  and  mobility:  new  possibilities  for  teacher training”, developed in the Graduate Program in Education, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, discuss how the practices of online education improve the interconnection of knowledge, learning and narratives in these formative spaces. Renata  Portela  Rinaldi  and Aline  Maria  de  Medeiros  Rodrigues  Reali,  in  the  article “Online  teacher  education  and  teacher  professional  learning:  reflections  and  notes”  deal  with  the professional development of teacher educators (basic and higher education), through online education, situating this modality as a way to design new opportunities for professional development that considers the school as the center of learning processes. Lucila  Pesce  closes  the  second  thematic  group  with  the  article  “The  didactical fruitfulness of open educational resources for teaching nowadays”, in which the researcher discusses the didactic fecundity of open educational resources for contemporary teachers, bringing a reflection from  the  political  and  cultural  context,  in  line  with  the  necessary  critical  reading  of  information  and communication technologies. The  third  thematic  group  -  digital  information  and  communication  technologies  and higher education - begins with the paper “Evaluation of learning in higher education: challenges and opportunities in distance learning”, written by Betina Magalhães Bitencourt, Marília Bortoluzzi Severo and  Shalimar  Gallon.  The  article  discusses  the  traditional  forms  of  assessment,  as  well  as  current trends, through an analysis of its applicability in the contemporary reality of higher education. Such discussion  is  supported  a  scenario  in  which,  with  the  spread  of  distance  education,  new  forms  of assessment are needed, so that the evaluation process would constitute a genuine educational tool. Aristóteles  da  Silva  Oliveira,  Fernando  Silvio  Cavalcante  Pimentel,  Luís  Paulo Leopoldo Mercado and Tatiane Campos present, in the paper “Virtual worlds and education: challenges and possibilities”, an analysis of virtual worlds , focusing on the study of new methodologies for higher education, based on a webgraphic and analytical approach. Débora Santos de Andrade Dutra and Marger da Conceição Ventura Viana show, in the article “Problem solving in virtual learning environments: possibilities in distance education”, a study on the use of Problem Solving methodology in virtual learning environments, in order to investigate what contributions it might bring to the undergraduate students of Mathematics from the Federal University of Ouro Preto. In “Potential of open educational resources for technology integration and convergence between the modalities at UFSM”, Elena Maria Mallmann, Juliana Sales Jacques, Anna Helena Silveira Sonego, Tatiana Gloor Teixeira, Iris Cristina Datsch Toebe and Fabiane da Rosa Domingues focus on the implementation and promoting of school practices, to enhance the integration of technology and the convergence between the modalities at the Federal University of Santa Maria through Open Educational Resources. Closing the third thematic group, Juliane dos Santos Medeiros and Mercedes Carvalho present  the  paper  “Pedagogy  in  distance  education:  analysis  of  proposed  activities  in  mathematics classes”. The authors report an investigation about the teaching of mathematics in a distance Pedagogy course  in  the  state  of Alagoas,  with  the  aim  of  analyzing  the  activities  proposed  for  the  discipline “Knowledge and Methodologies for Teaching Mathematics”, available in a virtual learning environment. The fourth thematic group - digital information and communication technologies and contemporary social practices in education - introduces three articles. Antonio Ramón Bartolomé Pina, Francislê Neri de Souza and Marcelo Carneiro Leão sign the article “Educational research from Internet latent data”.  The authors analyze the use of latent information from Internet about the fields of Social Sciences and Education. They discuss the consultation of research articles done from this latent corpus, focusing on four questions: what can be investigated, in which context this data was found, how to select samples, what ethics aspects should be considered? Maria Niedja Pereira Martins, Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Monteiro and Tamires Nogueira Queiroz  are  the  authors  of  the  paper  “Understandings  about  sampling  from  manipulation  of  data  in                                                                               Revista Eletrônica de Educação, v. 7, n. 2, nov. 2013. ISSN 1982-7199. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brasil. Introduction ________________________________________________________________________________________________ TinkerPlots software: a case of a polyvalent teacher”. They analyze the results of a case study that investigated a versatile teacher’s understanding of sampling when using TinkerPlots software, in order to identify the ways the teacher understood three basic aspects of the concept of sampling: size, type and representativeness . The fourth thematic group is closed by the article “Distance education as a teaching method in federal prisons”, by Rafael Pitwak Machado Silva, Suemy Yukizaki and Benjamin Carvalho Teixeira Pinto. It points out that distance education allows the democratization of access to education, in locations  that  are  distant  from  large  urban  centers. Therefore,  the  authors  emphasize  that  one  can extend this strategy to maximum security prisons, promoting educational assistance to people that are deprived of liberty, as stated by the law. This edition also features three experience reports. Raquel Rosan Christino Gitahy and Jaqueline  de  Souza  José  sign  the  text  “The  use  of  information  and  communication  technologies  in teaching practice” in which they investigate the understanding that public school teachers have of the use of information and communication technology in teaching practice. Marta Ofélia Chaile and Verónica Mercedes Javi, in the text “In-service teacher training: recurring to multimedia material for renewable energy teaching”, reported a research conducted by professionals of Physics - Renewable Energy (RE) and  Pedagogy,  with  the  objective  of  disseminating  and  teaching  concepts  related  to  the  field  of renewable energy. The last report, “Videos and mathematics in Coletivo (RE)Ação: an experience that is becoming history”, written by Douglas Carvalho de Menezes, Mário Lucio Alexandre and Arlindo José de Souza Junior, presents the history of a subproject of Coletivo (RE)Ação: a group that aims to contribute to the formation process of young inhabitants of the east side of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in partnership  with  the  NGO  Ação  Moradia,  Research  Group  on  Education  and  Popular  Culture (GPECPOP), and the Center for Research on Education and Media (NUPEME) Given  the  effervescence  of  social  practices  mediated  by  digital  technologies  of information and communication, this issue of the journal stands in the midst of a multitude of research objects and theoretical and methodological approaches. It is amid this multiplicity that we invite the reader to deepen his views on this exciting topic in the current historical moment   Lucila Pesce (UNIFESP)  Mercedes Carvalho (UFAL)                (English version by Maria Claudia Bontempi Pizzi)  

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