Florencia Cruz da Rocha EBELING
Doxa: Rev. Bras. Psico. e Educ., Araraquara, v. 24, n. esp. 2, e023026, 2023. e-ISSN: 2594-8385
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30715/doxa.v24iesp.2.18645 5
that affected students' families, teachers, and educational institutions due to Internet access and
quality issues. The completion of this diagnosis took place over two months.
The third phase was characterized by the search for communication channels between
the school and families, teachers, and students, as there was a need for closer interaction among
educational actors. WhatsApp was chosen as the application for this purpose, and the
communication process was monitored by the school, identifying that the Internet would not be
the best means to deliver school activities to students due to the limited access by both students
and teachers. Printed materials were chosen instead. The participant's account aligns with the
supplementary research from Pnad Contínua (IBGE, 2018 apud DUARTE; HYPOLITO, 2020,
p. 743, our translation)
[...]Between October and December 2018 (the last period of available data
from the supplementary research in the IBGE databases), 25.3% of individuals
over ten years of age in Brazil reported not having used the Internet. When
considering the student status, Pnad Contínua reveals that 14% of this
audience stated they had not accessed the Internet during that period. Among
them, 38.1% mentioned that the main barriers preventing their access were the
service cost (26.4%) or the cost of the necessary equipment for connection
(11.7%). In absolute numbers, this represents more than 4 million students at
various educational levels, stages, and school networks.
The participant's account was corroborated by the other secretaries regarding internet
access and the use of printed materials for students, adding Facebook as a communication
platform. Another hindrance to the use of online devices during that period, according to the
participants, was the unpreparedness of teachers to use technology for education.
Almeida and Valente (2011), argue that the training of teachers for mediating teaching
through ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) requires certain conditions to be
met. These conditions involve creating opportunities for teachers to build knowledge about
aspects related to computer use, having an understanding of teaching, learning, and knowledge
implicit in the software, and understanding why and how to integrate the computer into the
curriculum and how to implement this in their pedagogical practice.
These considerations by the author remind us of the complexity of teacher training for
the pedagogical use of ICT, and during the pandemic, they had to provide, in most cases, a
massive movement that was insufficient for building technological fluency in these teachers.
Stating that ICTs are the solution to the dilemmas of education is far from accurate, but
they can suggest possible paths for collaborative practices and more horizontal relationships
between teachers and students at all educational stages. Recalling Freire (1996), education is