Use of digital technologies in education: following a phenomenon in construction

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the process of insertion of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools and the move by educators to adopt them. As a scenario for this research, it was choosen a project aimed at training teachers in the pedagogical use of ICT, and a public school in São João del-Rei/MG, where it were observed initial experiments of the use of a computer laboratory and interviewed educators. As proposed by the Actor-Network Theory – the chosen theoretical and methodological approach – we seek to map out and describe the associations between human and non-human actors involved in this phenomenon. It was found that new ICT bring unprecedented opportunities for educational innovation, but incorporating them effectively in pedagogical practices has been a lengthy process and full of challenges. Since the actors interact and change constantly, the results obtained offer only a temporary stabilization of the investigated phenomenon, especially if we consider the speed at which changes occur in today’s society.