Reflections of online mediations in the process of continuing teacher training focusing on local environmental problems

• Main Authors: Gabriel Gerber Hornink, Maurício Compiani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Campinas 2017-10-01
• Series: ETD: Educação Temática Digital
• Subjects: teacher training. field work. information technology. mediation.
• Online Access: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/etd/article/view/8646285

The city walls go beyond their physical aspect towards the perception that invisible walls divide society and generate significant impacts. This theme was part of the fieldwork for high school students from public schools in Campinas-SP (Brazil) in the context of the Anhumas River in the School Project (ARS). The fieldwork Walls was developed by a multidisciplinary group of teachers through face-to-face meetings and online activities in the TelEduc learning virtual environment. This work focuses on how online mediation with face-to-face interaction allowed the construction of the fieldwork, making participants think critically about social and spatial organization. To analyze this process, the mediated action theory was used, admitting “agents-acting-with-cultural-tools” and statements as units of analysis. A method was developed to analyze the online forum and its relations, together with other TelEduc data and interviews. The results indicate a strong relationship between online and face-to-face discussions, although at an early stage of the use of digital technology, highlighting the possibility of an independent access schedule. The analysis of semantic flows in the forums indicated the route for the construction of the concept of walls, starting with concrete / physical walls and proceeding to the abstract and the consequences for the use and occupation of space. The enhancement of the work was expected from the use of digital technologies, which actually happened, though culturally there remains a difficulty in online collaborative work, which highlights the use of email regarding the diversity of tools, requiring a deeper process of digital enculturation.