Abstract:

A growing number of people use digital technologies such as cellular phones, tablets and computers in everyday life. In Brazil, census data inform that in 91.2% of the homes there are cellular phones; in 16.3%, there are tablets; and in 46.2% there are computers [1]. Based on the census data, it is assumed that students have access to these technologies and that they have the skills and ability to interact and develop activities using digital technologies – especially cellular phones and tablets – and the internet. These characteristics have encouraged proposing activities in the context of a flipped classroom, and have also encouraged proposing teaching and learning strategies in the context of mobile learning. However, sometimes experiences in the classroom adopting some of these possibilities are frustrated because this assumed digital fluency does not come to the fore as expected.

In this scenario that involves the teaching and learning processes, with the adoption of digital technologies, we developed a short duration course for the initial training of teachers, aiming to provide the participants with experiences of learning Chemistry in the context of mobile learning [2]. This course was held twice, in 2014 and in 2016. During the development of these two editions of the course, the “technological profile” of future Chemistry teachers was investigated. The data were collected using a questionnaire and an interview.

The data were analyzed for each of the editions and later compared, looking at how the adoption of digital technologies grew among the students, and also identifying how this adoption takes place, what types of apps are used and what activities they carry out with their devices. Among the results we find that the future teachers have broad access to the digital technologies but do not use them in their learning activities. Details of the results that outline the “technological profile” of these future teachers, including the type of device they use to access internet, the type of internet connection, the Apps used, how and for what the Apps are used, how the future teachers adopt the digital technologies in the context of education – are shown in the final paper. These results will provide additional information to render appropriate the activities that will be developed in the educational context, with the prospect of the naturalization of the digital technologies for the teaching and learning processes, especially within the sphere of the flipped classroom and of mobile learning.

References:
[1] Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios. “Acesso à internet e à televisão e posse de telefone móvel celular para uso pessoal: 2015 / IBGE”, Coordenação de Trabalho e Rendimento, - Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 2016.
[2] A. Grunewald Nichele, L. Zielinski do Canto, “Initial Teacher Training: an action to potentiate the adoption of smartphones and tablets to teach chemistry”, EDULEARN17 Proceedings, 2017.

Keywords:

Digital technological profile, initial teacher training.