REDESIGNING TRADITIONAL COURSES: USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

The technologies are increasingly present in society daily life. The Internet and digital technologies brought out a new social paradigm, described as information society founded in the power of information, where knowledge is a flexible resource, ever expanding and changing and where there are no barriers of time and space for communication. In this context, school faces a huge challenge: it is necessary to develop and implement innovative solutions in order to adapt the concepts and traditional methods of teaching and learning to students’ new requirements and profile. The teaching and learning process of programming logic involves content and concepts that aim the development of analytical capacity, abstraction and logical reasoning allowing problem resolution through computer algorithms. However, students face some difficulties resulting, not only from lack of knowledge, particularly in mathematics area, but also from the teaching methodology adopted in the content presentation. This paper presents a methodology for teaching and learning programming logic supported by the use of mobile devices. We used the App Inventor tool, a visual programming environment, which allows the development of applications for Android mobile devices. Thus, it was possible to introduce programming concepts in a more appealing, participatory and engaging way, allowing experiment, discovery and test. It was possible to combine students perception of the importance and applicability of learning contents with their affinity and interest in mobile technologies. In addition, it was possible to introduce usability concepts of interactive systems interfaces, particularly applied to mobile devices. The results obtained were very satisfactory. The school, as a reflection of society, must adapt and exploit the new possibilities of technology. It is necessary to integrate the technologies in the teaching and learning processes, remodeling and redesigned new habits and methods.