NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND EDUCATION: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNET INFLUENCE IN THE LEARNING OF STUDENTS OF BASIC EDUCATION

Abstract

This work is part of the activities of a research project whose aim is to investigate the influence of technology in teaching. Therefore, we resort to a methodological basis that, although moves quantitatively observable information, is covered primarily by a qualitative feature, whose approach is epistemologically based on authors like Levy (1999), Castells (2002), Jenkins (2009), Moran (2012) and Rojo (2009, 2012, 2013), among others. From the objective of seeking to understand how a high school student group evaluates the impact of the Internet and its tools in study activities, as well as in the concepts memorization process, we reached results that, in summary, outline a scenario marked by the presence of a new student: a regular internet user; an individual linked to interactivity; a seeker of facilitated information, even though fragmented. As an instrument for data collection, a questionnaire was drawn up by which the subjects were led to reflect and to expose their position on information such as: the possibility of daily use of the internet and the time devoted to this activity; the use of the internet for study activities; the encouragement of school and family to use the internet; the types of information accessed on the Internet focused on the study; the impact of the Internet in the teaching-learning process; the importance of memorizing concepts; the quality of search tools such as Google; and the possibility of impact, due to the constant use of this tool, on the concepts retention. The results showed that, in fact, we can perceive effects of virtuality on school practices of the students, since the way they conceive the memorization of concepts and the value they give to it and to the search for information can be changed by the omnipresence, currently detected, of the digital resources, highly virtualizing.