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PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE REANP: THE USE OF TECHNOLOGIES WITH THE ABSENCE OF INTERNET ACCESS1 1 Article published with fundingf rom theConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico- CNPq/Brazil for editing, layout and XML conversion services. The translation of this article into English was funded by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES/Brasil.

ABSTRACT:

This article present sex cerpts from a research developed in the Professional Master’s Degree in the line of teacher training, carried out in 2021 and 2022. Its object of study was the tools used by literacy teachers, from the Public Teaching Network, in a city of Minas Gerais to teach their students s with no access to internet during the Emergency Regime of Non-Presential School Activities, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This article aims to problematize whether the tools used, such as printed material, were most ly effective in the task of teaching/alphabetizing these children, in addition to presenting the teachers with possibilities and technological alternatives, via media-education, with the aim of contributing to minimize possible difficulties. Also, it aims to help in the development of critical, creative and instrumental pedagogical practices, using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that are independent from internet access. Applied research was produced through fieldwork, in a qualitative and quantitative approach, in which data collection, analysis and discussion were carried out, resulting in the production of the Instructional Guide “Exploring Technologies in the Absence of Internet” to assist the teachers in the task of bringing learning to students. It was concluded that the tools, such as printed material, were not effective, therefore, the presentation to teachers about the use of technologies for students without the possibility of accessing the internet via media education, contributed to learning (literacy) taking place in a more effective and inclusive way, thus guaranteeing the right to learn.

Keywords:
public schools; right to learn; Emergency Regime of Non-presential School Activities; media-education

RESUMO:

Este artigo apresenta recortes de uma pesquisa desenvolvida no mestrado profissional, na linha formação de professores, realizada nos anos de 2021 e 2022, e que teve como objeto de estudo as ferramentas utilizadas pelos professores alfabetizadores da rede pública de ensino de um município de Minas Gerais para ensinar seus alunos sem acesso à internet durante o Regime Emergencial de Atividades Escolares Não Presenciais (REANP), na pandemia de covid-19. O presente artigo visa problematizar se as ferramentas utilizadas, como o material impresso, apresentaram eficácia na tarefa de ensinar/alfabetizar essas crianças, além de pretender apresentar aos professores possibilidades e alternativas tecnológicas, via mídia-educação, com a finalidade de contribuir para minimizar possíveis dificuldades. Ademais, foram desenvolvidas práticas pedagógicas críticas, criativas e instrumentais, utilizando as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) que independem da internet. Foi produzida uma pesquisa de natureza aplicada por meio do trabalho de campo, com abordagem qualiquantitativa na qual foram realizadas coleta de dados, análise e discussões, resultando na produção do Guia Instrucional Explorando Tecnologias na Ausência da Internet para auxiliar os professores na tarefa de levar o aprendizado aos alunos. Concluiu-se que ferramentas como o material impresso não apresentaram eficácia, assim, a apresentação aos professores sobre o uso das tecnologias para estudantes sem a possibilidade de acesso à internet via mídia-educação contribuiu para que o aprendizado (alfabetização) acontecesse de forma mais efetiva e inclusiva, garantindo o direito de aprender.

Palavras-chave:
escolas públicas; direito de aprendizagem; REANP; mídia-educação

RESUMEN:

Este artículo presenta extractos de una investigación desarrollada en la Maestría Profesional en la línea de formación docente, realizada en los años 2021 y 2022, que tuvo como objeto de estudio las herramientas utilizadas por los alfabetizadores, de la Red Pública de Enseñanza. ,en una ciudad de Minas Gerais para enseñar a sus alumnos sin acceso a internet durante el Régimen de Emergencia de Actividades Escolares No Presenciales, durante la Pandemia del COVID-19. Este artículo tiene como objetivo problematizar si las herramientas utilizadas, como el material impreso, fueron mayormente efectivas en la tarea de alfabetización/enseñanza de estos niños, además de presentar a los docentes posibilidades y alternativas tecnológicas, vía media-educación, con el objetivo de contribuir minimizar posibles dificultades; además, pretende ayudar en el desarrollo de prácticas pedagógicas críticas, creativas e instrumentales, utilizando las Tecnologías de La Información y La Comunicación (TIC) que incluso sean independientes del acceso a internet. Se produjo una investigación aplicada a través de trabajo de campo, en un enfoque cualitativo y cuantitativo, en la que se llevó a cabo la recolección de datos, análisis y discusión, resultando en la producción de la Guía Instruccional “Explorando Tecnologías en la Ausencia de Internet” para auxiliar a los docentes en la tarea de acercar el aprendizaje a los estudiantes. Se concluyó que las herramientas, como el material impreso, no fueron efectivas, por lo tanto, la presentación a los docentes sobre el uso de las tecnologías para estudiantes sin posibilidad de acceso a internet a través de la educación mediática, contribuyó a que el aprendizaje (alfabetización) se lleve a cabo de una manera mañera más eficaz e inclusiva, garantizando así el derecho a aprender.

Palabras clave:
escuelas públicas; derecho a aprender; Régimen de Emergencia de las Actividades Escolares No Presenciales; educación em medios

INTRODUCTION

The lack of internet, or its access, becomes an obstacle for learning and literacy to take place during periods and situations of non-face-to-face school activities, such as during the covid-19 pandemic, especially for children included in the literacy cycle (six to eight years old), in which interactivity, playfulness, gestural and sound movement and manipulation are fundamental since the world of reading and writing is abstract for those who have not yet get it.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, social isolation became necessary and, later, social distancing, was also guided by the WHO (BBC NEWS, 2020BBC NEWS BRASIL. Coronavírus: OMS declara pandemia.2020.Disponível em<Disponível emhttps://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-51842518 >. Acesso em: 23 mai. 2021.
https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-518...
). As a result, children were no longer able to go to school and had to study at/from home through synchronous classes (real-time via virtual media) and/or asynchronous classes (recorded and available online through communication channels). Children who had access to quality internet participated in online classes with mediation, intervention, and monitoring by the teacher and, thus, became literate. However, for those with low income, monitoring was not possible, as they did not have internet. Soon, they were left without the direct presence of the school and their teacher. In this context, these low-income and socially vulnerable children/students, who were unable to continue their studies due to lack of internet access, were provided with printed materials and handouts produced by teachers and distributed by schools. These children were excluded as those who received printed activities were left without direct assistance from the teacher, their learning was compromised and, therefore, they were not literate.

It is important to consider that in Brazil around 82% of students are in the public education network (IBGE, 2019AGÊNCIA DE NOTÍCIAS IBGE. Mais da metade das pessoas de 25 anos ou mais não completaram o ensino médio. 2019. Disponível em <Disponível em https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-sala-de-imprensa/2013-agencia-de-noticias/releases/28285-pnad-educacao-2019-mais-da-metade-das-pessoas-de-25-anos-ou-mais-nao-completaram-o-ensino-medio >. Acesso em 21 out. 22.
https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/ag...
) and many of these people are poor. Given this, we were provoked to analyze and question how these students, who only received printed activities, were learning, that is, whether the tools that emerged from this situation were effective in the task of teaching/literacy students.

Drawing on examples of nations that stood out in the fight against Covid-19 and in strengthening their educational institutions by choosing education as an essential and priority service, mitigating the possible impacts of isolation/social distancing, is of utmost importance. In this direction, the mechanisms and tools that enable teaching and learning for those whose social condition makes them vulnerable and excluded from the educational process present a character of necessity, urgency, assistance, and training, to achieve an inclusion and learning process.

Pedagogical conditions on teaching work must use all materiality, from initial and continued training to the promotion of technical and structural issues, which are important and indispensable supplements to teaching. However, it is essential to highlight that behind a personified teacher lies a person who needs not only to be attended to but, above all, understood in their uncertainties, anxieties, needs, and difficulties.

By carrying out field research and collecting data that highlighted the difficulty, for most teachers, of serving students without internet access during the period of non-face-to-face school activities, we proposed workshops through the Instructional Guide Exploring Technologies in the Absence of the Internet (Explorando Tecnologias na Ausência da Internet), with a demonstration of the use of tools to enable teaching/learning for students, as well as indicating the possibilities of their use and operationalization. Technological tools can provide interaction in a more lively, attractive, meaningful and, why not say, affective way.

Well-known tools, such as CD/DVD, pendrive, and free applications in offline mode, favor the innovation of pedagogical practices with distance education and when, mainly, in the case of these children whose social condition already limits them, education has become distant and absent. Thus, ICTs play a fundamentally important role in access to learning in creative development, with a critical approach to mitigating social injustices arising from the historical-cultural process. In this sense, as a guiding axis of competent actions, it is important to have the disparities between students in public and private schools, central and peripheral schools, and urban and rural schools, since, as it is a fundamental right, the education offered does not need to be equal but there need to be equal conditions.

Continuing training and instrumental support for teachers in the use of technological tools, aimed at students without the possibility of access to the internet, via media education, conceptualized by Bévort and Belloni (2009BÉVORT, Evelyne; BELLONI, Maria Luiza. Mídia-educação: conceitos, história e perspectivas.Educação & Sociedade, v. 30, p. 1081-1102, 2009.) as the integration of devices and technical supports (printed, radio, cinema, television) to educational and communication processes, in addition to presenting as an object of study and pedagogical tool - from the perspective of education for the media, with the media, about the media, and through the media - contribute to learning happen more effectively and inclusively.

LITERACY AS A RIGHT

Literacy data in Brazil are far from ideal. According to the 2020 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD-Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio), Brazil still records 11 million illiterate people. The data is even more worrying when talking about functional illiteracy - the inability to understand, interpret texts and ideas, and perform mathematical operations, even knowing how to read. According to the Functional Literacy Indicator (INAF-Indicador de Alfabetismo Funcional), 29% of the Brazilian population is functionally illiterate - people who face difficulties in finding a job, qualifying for their careers and even organizing their lives and personal finances.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of governments and institutions when it comes to complying with the right to learning brought by legal documents. According to Soares (2020SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.), the failure in literacy is concentrated in public schools, where children from the lower classes are present, exactly those who most depend on education to be able to fight for better economic, social, and cultural living conditions. This can be seen in the results of the 2019 Basic Education Assessment System (Saeb-Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica).

Figure 1:
Percentage of students with adequate learning at Saeb: Total network - Brazil - 2019

During the pandemic period, in 2020 and 2021, children without internet access did not have their right to learn and be literate and respected, since the school was unable to reach them in the way they needed. Most teachers did not have the skills to use tools that were independent of the internet, not using them instrumentally, creatively, and critically. Already known tools such as those presented (CD, pendrive, memory card, free downloads, and offline mode for cell phones and computers), could contribute to innovating pedagogical practices.

For Soares (2020SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.), enrolling in a school does not guarantee learning for all children. Even with the universalization of education, there is no democratization of education, as having access to school, without access to quality education, means not achieving equal rights and possibilities.

The Federal Constitution and the consolidation of the BNCC

Through the Magna Carta, also called the Citizen Constitution (BRASIL, 1988), education began to be stated as a right for everyone and a duty of the State by law. This is what article 205 states: “Education, a right for all and a duty of the State and the family, will be promoted and encouraged with the collaboration of society, aiming at the full development of the person, their preparation for the exercise of citizenship and their qualification to the work”. Furthermore, article 206 deals with access to education and retention in it: “Education will be provided based on the principles of equal conditions for access and retention in school” (BRASIL, 1988BRASIL. Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil do 1988. Brasília, 1988. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/bitstream/handle/id/518231/CF88_Livro_EC91_2016.pdf >. Acesso em: 23 mai. 2021.
https://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/bitstrea...
).

The Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB-Lei de Diretrizes e Bases) of the National Education has the important objective of the development of the ability to learn, with the basic goals being full mastery of reading, writing, and calculation (BRASIL, 2006BRASIL. LDB - Lei n.º 11.274, de 6 defevereirode 2006. Brasília, 2006. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/lei/2006/lei-11274-6-fevereiro-2006-540875-publicacaooriginal-42348-pl.html >. Acesso em: 23 mai. 2021.
https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/lei...
). It was an important milestone in the history of the achievement of Brazilian education, which already saw the need to create a common base, which became a goal for the 2014 National Education Plan (PNE-Plano Nacional de Educação), materializing in the National Base Common Curricular (BNCC-Base Nacional Curricular Comum) in 2017.

Faced with this procedural and effective need, the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (PNAIC-Pacto Nacional pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa) of 2012 was created. It is a formal commitment made by the federal government, the Federal District, states, and municipalities, to ensure that all children are literate by eight years old, at the end of the 3rd grade of elementary school. All basic education schools were covered by the Pact's Actions, including those in the countryside. The Pact demonstrates concern regarding children's ability to learn reading in its various manifestations at the right age, as those who do not achieve this skill have difficulty continuing the study process and participating actively and autonomously in their social context.

To organize and guide the objectives, goals, and actions related to education, especially regarding literacy, the PNE in force until 2024 was approved by Law 13,005/2014, with the function of articulating national actions in collaboration with the states. The PNE aims at the eradication of illiteracy, improving the quality of education, and valuing education professionals (BRASIL, 2014BRASIL. Plano Nacional de Educação. Brasília, 2014. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://pne.mec.gov.br/18-planos-subnacionais-de-educacao/543-plano-nacional-de-educacao-lei-n-13-005-2014 >. Acesso em: 23 jun. 2021.
https://pne.mec.gov.br/18-planos-subnaci...
). Reducing the illiteracy rate in Brazil is also among the PNE's goals. According to Agência Brasil (2020AGÊNCIA BRASIL.O Brasil ainda tem 11 milhões de analfabetos. 2020.Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/educacao/noticia/2020-07/taxa-cai-levemente-mas-brasil-ainda-tem-11-milhoes-de-analfabetos >. Acesso em: 21 out. 22.
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/educaca...
), in 2015 Brazil should have reached 6.5% of illiterates among the population aged 15 or over, as established by the PNE, but the country approached the percentage of 6.6% only in 2019. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the country is far behind, as by 2024 this rate should be zero.

In this sense, the PNE guides the importance of a common national curricular base for Brazil, focusing on learning as a strategy to promote the quality of basic education. In this journey of producing and implementing a basis for guaranteeing the right to learn, the PNAIC is an important reference based on its actions that are linked to the BNCC proposition, whose discussions began between 2010-2012, concomitantly with the PNAIC, and which was implemented and developed in 2013. Thus, Frangella (2016FRANGELLA, Rita de Cássia Prazeres. Um pacto curricular: o pacto nacional pela alfabetização na idade certa e o desenho de uma base comum nacional.Educação em Revista, v. 32, p. 69-90, 2016.) suggests that the PNAIC was the path to a common base since similar elements are put on the agenda by the BNCC such as the right to learning for literacy in the first three years of primary education, already established by the Pact in its article 5.

From this perspective, on December 22, 2017, the complementary resolution resulting from the LDB was published, the BNCC. Aiming to guarantee students a common fundamental set of skills and knowledge, it is a curricular guiding document that guides, through their skills and abilities, the construction of curricula in education networks across the country. Composed of ten general competencies, the BNCC aims to guarantee learning rights to all basic education students. The document also establishes that literacy occurs up to eight years of age as a fundamental goal of guaranteeing the right to learn to read and write (BRASIL, 2017BRASIL. Base Nacional Comum Curricular: Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental. Brasília, 2017. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/pdf/lei9394_ldbn1.pdf >. Acesso em: 23 jun.2021.
http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/...
).

This line of teaching demands that the teacher understands and incorporates new ways of acting and new languages (BRASIL, 2017BRASIL. Base Nacional Comum Curricular: Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental. Brasília, 2017. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/pdf/lei9394_ldbn1.pdf >. Acesso em: 23 jun.2021.
http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/...
), revealing communication in its different possibilities to guarantee an integral education that respects different realities. It is important to emphasize that the BNCC is not a curriculum, but a document that guides them in a perspective on where they want and must get to. In other words, the curriculum does not outline the paths that must be followed but rather indicates the point that must be reached. The curriculum, the School Development Plan, the Pedagogical Political Project, and the teacher's lesson plan must be aligned with the BNCC, interrelating to transform the students' reality (MINAS GERAIS, 2018MINAS GERAIS. Currículo Referência. Belo Horizonte, 2018.). The following organizational chart presents this intersection in which competencies and responsibilities begin with the student and are consolidated for the student from a perspective of learning, development, and progress.

Figure2:
OrganizationalChart of Literacy as a Right

Among the ten basic competencies of the BNCC to guarantee the right to learning, four are directly related to the importance of using technology, especially with digital inclusion as a fundamental factor for the integral formation of the human being and Literacy2 2 Magda Soares presents the term Alfaletrar, expanded in this research to Alfaletramento, in the multidisciplinary sense regarding the appropriation, exploration and application of knowledge acquired and produced in all curricular components, as well as in the activities that engender the curriculum. as a capacity to read the world in which students are inserted. The Base also promotes equity to guarantee the right to quality education for all, in public and private, urban and rural schools across the country, reducing educational inequalities to contribute to the construction of a democratic, fair, and inclusive society.

Frangella (2016FRANGELLA, Rita de Cássia Prazeres. Um pacto curricular: o pacto nacional pela alfabetização na idade certa e o desenho de uma base comum nacional.Educação em Revista, v. 32, p. 69-90, 2016.) mobilizes the debate regarding the importance of understanding education as a right and the right to learning, this principle being fundamental, but not the only one, for education as a right. For the right to learn to be guaranteed as a right to education, many factors and services need to be pursued, such as access, retention, and learning with equity and quality. The idea of the right to learning unfolds in the school’s duty to teach. For the author, learning is an issue in which exogenous factors are preponderant, and these are marked, among others, by technical issues. The success of appropriating knowledge depends on how it is inserted into the teaching-learning process in terms of management and thinking about appropriate ways of transmitting it.

Literacy: the space and time to learn

Literacy as a right to learn, according to BNCC (2017), consists of the individual's ability to interact through written texts in different situations in their daily lives, in addition to the ability to produce texts that meet the purposes of communication. In this way, literate children can independently read and write socially circulated texts (BRASIL, 2017BRASIL. Base Nacional Comum Curricular: Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental. Brasília, 2017. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/pdf/lei9394_ldbn1.pdf >. Acesso em: 23 jun.2021.
http://portal.mec.gov.br/seesp/arquivos/...
), to meet their needs and objectives of expression and communication. Thus, as Soares (2020SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020., p.11) explains, “&391;...&393; literacy is not the learning of a code, but, above all, the learning of a system of representation, in which signs represent, not encode, the sounds of speech, literacy in a reading and writing context” for the full exercise of citizenship.

The author defends the idea that every child can learn to read and write. The student acquires knowledge through interventions from the environment and the teacher. That is why Soares (2021SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.) emphasizes the importance of a safe path to be taken by the teacher, with clarity of the objectives to be achieved, and the procedures and strategies to be used. For literacy to occur successfully and at the most appropriate period, there are other important factors to be considered - such as the commitment of teachers to the act of teaching, in addition to good initial and continued training - in meeting the needs of their work and their students.

When the child is inserted in an environment that encourages learning, before arriving at school, the literacy process has already begun, and it is up to the school and the literacy teacher to structure and lead the construction and consolidation of this knowledge. However, if the child does not have this circumstance, they will need the school even more to guide them. According to Ferreiro (1996FERREIRO, Emilia. Alfabetização em Processo. São Paulo: Cortez, 1996.), children living in rural areas and/or more isolated areas present a disadvantage in this sense, as their social context does not provide them with what they call a literacy environment. In this way, the school plays a determining role in helping children learn, as “&391;...&393; it is necessary to worry about giving children opportunities to learn” (FERREIRO, 1999FERREIRO, Emilia. Com Todas as Letras. São Paulo: Cortez, 1999. , p. 99), in the most varied circumstances, starting from the principle of the right to learn. Activities that guarantee the inclusion of children in social practices favor the appropriation of learning in the way in which the interactivity relationship is established, through playful and reflective activities and not just mechanical ones, disconnected from their real needs and interests.

Literacy in situations of non-face-to-face school activities: difficulties and possibilities

Opinion 5/2020 of the National Education Council (CNE-Conselho Nacional de Educação), which established the Emergency Regime for Non-In-Person School Activities (REANP-Regime Emergencial de Atividades Escolares Não Presenciais) due to the covid-19 pandemic, when teachers and students who were unable to attend schools, connected digitally due to the urgency of the moment (BEHAR, 2020BEHAR, PatriciaAlejandra. O Ensino Remoto Emergencial e a Educação a Distância. Rio Grande do Sul: UFRGS, 2020. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www.ufrgs.br/coronavirus/base/artigo-o-ensino-remoto-emergencial-e-a-educacao-a-distancia/ >. Acesso em:10 jan. 2022.
https://www.ufrgs.br/coronavirus/base/ar...
), further highlighted the weaknesses of education systems, especially basic education in the public network. These weaknesses are related to precarious access to the internet - or lack thereof the non-consolidation of literacy as an appropriation, and the interrelationship and social use of learning, constructed knowledge, and literacy as a process of appropriation of writing and reading. As can be seen in graph 2, regarding the percentage of children aged six and seven who do not know how to read and write in Brazil, the pandemic has worsened this difficulty; however, the failure in literacy should not be attributed only to it.

Figure 3:
Percentage of children aged six and seven who cannot read and write in Brazil (2012 to 2021)

The pandemic generated social distancing and accentuated the historical situation related to the low literacy rate in Brazil. As Soares (2020SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.) highlights, education is not synonymous with learning. Even though governments highlight the numbers of universal education, especially related to early childhood education, regarding elementary education, much still needs to be done so that the right to learning is guaranteed. Figure 2 shows this scenario well, as it presents data referring to 2019, one year before the pandemic, that is, the result of poor educational management in the country.

Figure4:
Literacy in Brazil

According to the same source, the number of children between six and seven years old who did not know how to read or write jumped from 1.429 million in 2019 (equivalent to 25.1% of Brazilian children in this age group) to 2.367 million (40.8% of children) in 2021, an increase of 65.6%. Even though the numbers brought about by the pandemic reveal an alarming fact, they do not only portray Brazil during this period, but, above all, they reveal the reflection of a country that has for some time presented serious difficulties in the field of literacy and education.

The illiterate children of yesterday are added to the 11 million functionally illiterate children of today, and, thus, those who are not being literate today will be added to them in the future. According to data from Agência Brasil (2020), which corroborates IBGE data from the same year, these Brazilians aged 15 or over are not capable of producing a simple ticket.

According to the Technical Note of the Todos Pela Educação movement, produced based on the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (IBGE/PnadContínua, 2012 to 2021), in which the numbers corresponding to the third quarter of each year were compared, the negative effects of the covid-19 pandemic on Brazilian public education are confirmed. According to the research, it is possible to see a relevant difference between children living in the richest households and those in the poorest areas of the country. Among the poorest children, the percentage of those who could not read and write increased from 33.6% to 51.0%, between 2019 and 2021. Amongtherichestchildren, theincreasewasfrom 11.4% to 16.6 %.

The worst scenario brought by the pandemic, in this aspect, is closely linked to the fact that children with greater social vulnerability have not been able to continue their studies in the same way as children in better social conditions. In other words, learning in this situation was being mediated by digital technologies such as cell phones, tablets, and computers in a synchronous (real-time) or asynchronous (alternative time and space) manner, both possible via the internet. According to PNAD (2019), 29% of households - approximately 19.7 million homes - did not have internet that year. Of this amount of disconnected people, 59% claimed not to purchase internet because they considered this service too expensive and 25% stated that there was no internet service in their locations. It is also worth noting that 41% of those interviewed claimed not to have a computer, and 49% said they did not know how to use the internet. Therefore, the students included in these statistics are outside the remote teaching strategy mediated by digital technologies (CETIC, 2019CETIC. Pesquisa sobre o Uso das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação nos domicílios brasileiros - TIC Domicílios. São Paulo, 2019. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://data.cetic.br/cetic/explore >. Acesso em: 20 jul. 2021.
http://data.cetic.br/cetic/explore...
), leaving them with printed material. This fact, for the literacy cycle, is not relevant. Children in this age group do not master reading, interpretation, and writing skills, as these are results of teaching work based on interactivity, playfulness, orality, and phonological awareness. The word is the writing of sound, according to Soares (2020SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.).

Graphs 3and 4 show the result of the interrelationship between internet access and literacy/learning during this period, in which children without access are harmed due to the lack of interaction with the teacher. In a group made up of 1893 students in the literacy cycle, between six and eight years old, around 928 students did not have access to the internet, or their access was restricted. Of them, 909 students were not literate or had severe learning difficulties.

Graph 1:
Literacy

Graph 2:
Internet access

The situation experienced by schools during periods of non-face-to-face school activities, or other circumstances in which children are unable to go to school - such as adversities with school transport and access roads, bad weather, health issues, work to help with family income, issues so typical of rural areas, urban peripheries, riverside communities and especially the pandemic situation in which the world was found in the 2020/2021 biennium - must be the subject of discussion and effective actions. It is important to highlight the disparities between students in public and private schools, in central and peripheral schools, and urban and rural areas, because, when it comes to a fundamental right, the education offered does not need to be equal, but it needs to have equal conditions. If the internet cannot reach everyone, perhaps for geographical reasons, ICTs can fulfill this role.

In this sense, ICTs prove to be fundamental, even though they do not and should not perform the task of teaching. Therefore, its instrumental use for access and path, in creative development, with a critical approach to mitigate social injustices arising from the historical-cultural process, has a positive and transformative impact on the reality in which these children are inserted.

Virtual communication occurs through technological means, which does not mean that the internet is the main facilitator of this communication. It makes it more efficient and faster, but some technologies enable this communication even in the absence of the internet. This is the case with media such as printed writing, television, radio, and telephone. The ICT Household survey (CETIC, 2019FERREIRO, Emilia. Alfabetização em Processo. São Paulo: Cortez, 1996.) shows that 98% of homes have a television set, demonstrating that this is the most accessible means.

Education can use all available means and technologies, from the internet, through photography, to printed material (FANTIN; GIRARDELLO, 2009FANTIN, Monica; GIRARDELLO, Gilka Elvira Ponzi. Diante do abismo digital:mídia-educação e mediações culturais.Perspectiva, v. 27, n. 1, p. 69-96, 2009.). Inclusion in this digital context is fundamental for the exercise of citizenship, and the most serious consequence is that the poorest populations are deprived of the strength of orality, of the original culture at school, while they are not introduced to the grammar of new media. For Fantin and Girardello (2009FANTIN, Monica; GIRARDELLO, Gilka Elvira Ponzi. Diante do abismo digital:mídia-educação e mediações culturais.Perspectiva, v. 27, n. 1, p. 69-96, 2009.), pedagogical interaction through media resources has the potential to promote, particularly through the communication of images, the remembrance of experiences, the feeling of belonging, affection, and companionship.

Technological media resources - MEDIA EDUCATION - work as bridges that open the classroom to the world, which represent and mediate our knowledge of the world. Productions that involve images, sounds, movements, and scenarios seduce us, integrating the rational and the affective, the deductive and the inductive, space and time, the concrete and the abstract, awakening curiosities, sensations and perceptions, stimulating, for example, creativity and imagination (MORAN, 2007MORAN, José. As mídias na educação.Desafios na comunicação pessoal, v. 3, p. 162-166, 2007., p. 4).

Ferreiro (1996FERREIRO, Emilia. Alfabetização em Processo. São Paulo: Cortez, 1996., p. 40) still draws attention to the “&391;...&393; impoverished image we have of the child who learns, we reduce it to a pair of eyes, a hand that picks up an instrument”, as it is ignored that there is a being who thinks, constructs interpretations, acts on reality to make it his own. Providing learning opportunities for this child is the social role of the school, the responsibility of the teacher, and the obligation of related institutions. Hence the importance of the process, according to Ferreiro (1996FERREIRO, Emilia. Alfabetização em Processo. São Paulo: Cortez, 1996.), in a teaching reflection: why? For what? How? What do I do from now on?

THE MEDIA- EDUCATION AS A BRIDGE TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS - A VIABLE PROPOSAL

Technology can be an important ally for the development of these new skills but for this to happen, it is important to integrate knowledge and practices on its use in the initial and continuing training of teachers, as recommended by the Common National Curriculum Base for Initial Training of Basic Education Teachers (BNCFP-Base Nacional Comum Curricular para a Formação Inicial de Professores da Educação Básica), through Resolution CNE/CP number 2, of December 20, 2019. The BNCFP, that is, competence-based training, along the lines of the BNCC for students, establishes general and specific competencies for teacher training. There are ten general competencies and 12 specific competencies, the latter grouped into three dimensions (knowledge, practice, and professional engagement).

The action of ICTs, through the media, enables information/knowledge and communication/interaction in different times and spaces in a more agile way, which does not mean that, without the internet as a digital tool, other tools fail to fulfill the role of carry out the same actions. Thus, not only the internet used by man, but all technology, in a shift change in which technology and the internet connect, as well as differentiate themselves.

It was mechanical, but it was technology. Because it seems like new technologies started yesterday. And no! Technology began with the pen; Before the pen, there was the pencil and before that, there was the pen...Technology has existed since the beginning and the typewriter was a super interesting technology that was also rejected by educators because that was work for the secretariats. There was a profession and a mechanography course to learn how to type. If they had worked on the typewriter before the computer, it would be easier because the keyboard is the same. But “oh no! The machines make a lot of noise and cannot enter the classroom.” Absurd (FERREIRO, 2013FERREIRO, Emilia. A potência das diferenças. Revista Educação. 2013. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://revistaeducacao.com.br/2013/07/02/a-potencia-das-diferencas/ >. Acesso em: 14 out. 2021.
https://revistaeducacao.com.br/2013/07/0...
, p. 4).

Therefore, the association between innovation and technology is common, but it is important to emphasize that innovation is not just about what is new. Innovation is the art of changing what already exists, creating other possibilities, and new technologies. It is about making different uses of what is already known. The DVD player in times of metaverse seems archaic and obsolete, and that is if we consider its inefficiency when what is expected is agility and not interaction/integration.

The time and space for learning are dynamic, changeable, and continuous. Knowledge is not a finished and limited product. It is in this direction that the task of integrating spaces and people, knowledge and learning, falls to ICTs. From opportunities emerge possibilities. Necessity helps us overcome difficulties. If there is anything positive brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the field of education, it is precisely the need to overcome the difficulty in using technologies to guarantee learning for all students. Fantin and Girardello (2009FANTIN, Monica; GIRARDELLO, Gilka Elvira Ponzi. Diante do abismo digital:mídia-educação e mediações culturais.Perspectiva, v. 27, n. 1, p. 69-96, 2009.) present digital inclusion as a public policy to combat what they call “technological apartheid”, in a comparative mention of the racial segregation experienced by South Africa in the period from 1948 to 1994. A little beyond this perspective, Kenski (2010KENSKI, Vani Moreira. Tecnologias e ensino presencial e a distância. Campinas/SP: Papirus Editora, 2010.) emphasizes that the media have long ceased to be mere technological supports, creating their languages and ways of communicating with people's perceptive, emotional, cognitive, intuitive, and communicative capabilities.

If the internet cannot reach everyone, perhaps for geographical reasons, ICTs can play this role: “If screens represent a solution, they come from the conditions” (SOARES, 2021SOARES, Magda. Alfabetização e Letramento: na cultura do papel e na cultura das telas Live promovida pelo Grupo CNPq Gellite - UFAL. Transmitido ao vivo em 23 de mar. de 2021. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okVYiJPNqe8 >. Acesso em: 28 out. 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okVYiJPN...
). Television, DVDs, computers, cameras, cell phones, pendrives, memory cards, and the internet are examples of technological tools that enhance learning and provide personalization of teaching according to the student's needs, in addition to their interest in an engagement and proactivity perspective.

For Moran (2007MORAN, José. As mídias na educação.Desafios na comunicação pessoal, v. 3, p. 162-166, 2007.), innovating in the classroom goes beyond the use of teaching resources and materials, as it refers to a change in mentality, in the conception of what is important to teach and how or what to use so that this teaching is meaningful and appropriate for the student. There is little or no point in offering cutting-edge technological resources to a school or teacher if there is no work proposal to be developed, an objective to be achieved, and a future perspective. Therefore, what needs to be abolished from schools, especially from an intercultural perspective, is that which is archaic and obsolete from the point of view of educational methods and practices. According to Soares (2021SOARES, Magda. Alfaletrar:toda criança pode aprender a ler e a escrever. São Paulo: Contexto, 2020.), teachers can be considered digital immigrants, while students are digital natives, because, in a sense of obligation, necessity, and, in some cases, interest, the teacher needs to move from the board to the screen, in a multimodal resource use strategy. For Fantin (2016FANTIN, Monica. Nativos e imigrantes digitais em questão: crianças e competências midiáticas na escola. Passagens: Revista Do Programa De Pós-Graduação Em Comunicação da Universidade Federal do Ceará, 7(1), p. 5-26,2016. ), digital natives are those whose birth was already permeated by digital technologies.

Regarding the effectiveness of using tools to teach/literate children, without access or with restricted access to the internet, during non-face-to-face school activities, as previously presented. These children - aged between six and eight years old - need the effective and affective direct intervention of the teacher. Effective, because literacy is a continuous and constructive process in which the child to be literate already begins this skill in the socio-family context in which they live, using the school/teacher to systematize and consolidate this skill. Also, the action must be affective as a synonym for empathy, of putting oneself in the shoes of the child who is being taught.

The findings

According to a data, survey carried out based on information provided by the Municipal Department of Education (SEDUC, 2021), during REANP, around 60% of children between six and eight years old, that is, between the 1st and 3rd year of the literacy cycle, did not have access to the internet. These same children had links with the school and their teacher only through printed material, such as booklets produced by teachers and distributed throughout the school. Distribution was made monthly in most schools, in others, fortnightly. Rural communities used school transport for distribution. In urban areas, parents picked up the materials in person or they were delivered by motorcycle couriers and the Post Office. According to information from the Secretariat, all sanitary procedures, due to the covid-19 pandemic, were strictly respected. The remaining children, around 40%, received classes/activities through digital/electronic means, synchronously or asynchronously, through internet access (Whatsapp, Telegram, Meet, Youtube), tools through which they could also interact with the teacher and other colleagues, in addition to watching complementary, explanatory and expository videos. This practice of activities for the non-face-to-face period began in May 2020 and lasted until October 2021.

Another important piece of information obtained from the Department of Education refers to the fact that most children who only received printed activities turned them in at the end of each month without completing them (blank), incomplete, or, in many cases, completed by parents or other people, which caught the attention of teachers. When asked by schools why the children did not carry out the activities, parents/guardians claimed a lack of knowledge to help them, a lack of patience and time, and a significant number claimed they did not know how to read or had little reading.

Freire (2021FREIRE, Paulo. Educar com a mídia. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2021.) leads to the reflection that the act of teaching involves the loving coexistence between teacher and student and the curious stance that the child assumes as a social, historical, and cultural subject. Applied research was then carried out, which aimed to develop knowledge to apply it in practice, with exploratory objectives. This type of research, according to Gil (2002GIL, Antônio Carlos. Como elaborar projetos de pesquisa. 4. ed.São Paulo:Atlas, 2002.), provides the opportunity to make the problem more explicit with the possibility of establishing hypotheses. Along these lines, the procedure adopted was field research with a qualitative and quantitative approach, in which data was collected from literacy teachers (from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of elementary school) from two schools in the municipality of TrêsCorações/MG, one urban and the other rural. This allowed the analysis and understanding of the causes and possible effects of the problem (GIL, 2002GIL, Antônio Carlos. Como elaborar projetos de pesquisa. 4. ed.São Paulo:Atlas, 2002.) based on the theoretical basis on which the work was based.

Based on this issue, the Municipal Department of Education held an online meeting with managers and specialists from municipal schools to address the issue. This meeting was held in April 2021 and resulted in the proposal of a diagnostic assessment to identify difficulties and needs in the children's teaching and learning process, specifically regarding reading and writing skills. The assessment took place in May 2021 and was administered in printed format for children without internet access and in online format (via Google Forms) for those with access. With the information in hand, the necessary analyses were carried out, and it was concluded that the data obtained was not reliable, since it was not possible to give the child the result due to the remote performance of the activity. However, it was possible to verify that students who took the assessment online performed better than those who took it in printed form.

Given the difficulties presented in the Secretariat's report, it was proposed, as part of the development of this research, a survey among families on the availability of internet access, as well as available electronic resources (computer, television, DVD, and cell phone). The suggestion was accepted by the Secretariat. The initial objective of this survey was to verify how many, and which families had a cell phone for subsequent contact. Another objective, of greater importance for this study, was to obtain information on the availability of electronic devices for the use of ICTs, technological tools to enable teaching/learning. The 14 schools in the municipal education network, which have primary education - initial years, were willing to contribute to the survey.

The survey, carried out in July 2021, provided several important pieces of information, including that all families had a cell phone, a fact that caught our attention. However, later, based on the information, due to an important portion of the public served by the municipal education network being considered low-income, they benefited from the Government's Emergency Aid, and, to this end, it was necessary to have the application from the authorized agency to make the appropriate withdrawal. This information motivated us even more, as this way it would be possible to communicate with families to obtain more accurate information and for a more effective and affective relationship between school and family.

The cell phone enabled schools to provide information - regarding children's learning, especially reading - to present more reliable data, since with children without internet access the diagnostic assessment was carried out in printed format. Then, each school, through its teachers and collaborators, contacted the families of its students and scheduled a reading moment, even over the phone, to draw the “real” situation in which the learning of these children was found. It should be noted that this action was motivated by a lack of information by the children, because, through Decree 036, of May 11, 2020, they were in isolation and then in social distancing, imposed by the covid-19pandemic.

Of the total of 3,157 students, from the 1st to the 5th grade, 2,119 were assessed. Of these, 1,561 took the online assessment, and 558 students took the printed assessment, with the reading confirmed by telephone call. Thus, the report from the Department of Education revealed that 614 students were not literate. Another very important piece of information from this survey was that, of the 3,157 students from the 1st to the 5th grade, 52% had access to the internet. In this way, it was possible to conclude that, for students with access to the internet, learning was happening, however, for those with whom this research was concerned, learning was already impaired or not happening at all. These children were excluded. Those who received printed activities were left without direct assistance from the teacher, their learning was compromised and, therefore, they were not literate.

Given the data, a virtual meeting was held with the exhibition of successful practices related to literacy in the pandemic scenario in which there was an opportunity to learn and exchange experiences. In the Department of Education, Maria Terezinha da Consolação Teixeira and Laene Carletto motivated by the intention that all children would be met with their needs - no one less, no one left behind - and suggested, among other actions, the creation of a channel suitable for this objective. In this way, more people with the same needs would be reached, in addition to the benefit of archiving/recording for future research. Thus, a YouTube channel named Good Practices in Education was created by the Municipal Department of Education. In the first live broadcast, which took place in August 2021, 17 teachers signed up and shared their experiences with more than a thousand views in a single day.

From that point on, the work was divided into moments, as it was necessary to convince the teachers that it would be possible to reach these children without access to the internet, offering the learning they so needed in a meaningful and efficient way. Moment 1 consisted of the live presentation on the YouTube channel of the Municipal Department of Education to teachers in the municipality of TrêsCorações about technological tools that are independent or little dependent on the internet, as a contribution to non-face-to-face school activities. This was a live dedicated to successful practices in the early years of elementary school.

Figure 5:
Live of good practices from the early years

Moment 2 was an online meeting, held via Google Meet, dedicated to mobilizing teachers about the importance of literacy and how harmful it would be if nothing was done from this perspective, especially in the children with whom this research is concerned. The meeting was organized into five large groups: teachers from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th years with their respective coordinators. It was decided to include teachers from all initial grades, and not just from the literacy cycle, because it was already known, through the analysis of the diagnostic assessment, that, in all years of the stage, there were non-literate students without access to the Internet. We talked about the possibilities and potential of using technological tools that are independent of the internet to bring learning to children without access. There is no recording of this meeting, because, although it was simultaneous with the five classes, each one was in a virtual room. Therefore, a general presentation will be made here through reports from the coordinators of these groups.

In general, the suggestion to record classes that were shared synchronously and asynchronously to students with internet access - on CDs, pen drives, and others - for students without this access was well received and even caused surprise since these tools, already forgotten and even disused, could help. However, some questions and concerns were raised, in a very pertinent way: how to do it attractively and efficiently? What would the content be like? Who would do it? How would it reach students? How much time? Whose competence would it be? These, among other questions, were presented. This meeting ended with more questions than answers, but with the certainty that it would be possible and necessary to find the way to do so.

Going to the field

To apply in practice and explore the aspects presented at the meeting, in conjunction with the data obtained, especially the instrumental, creative, and critical use of ICTs, we went into the field. At moment 3, we held a face-to-face meeting with the Municipal Department of Education, presenting the need for a field study to enable the possibility of delving deeper into the topic, which until that moment was called Public Schools: technology in the absence of the internet. The Instructional Guide, the Technological Technical Product (TTP), was also created, with the title Exploring technologies in the absence of the internet (Explorando tecnologias na ausência da internet), which presents guidelines for the use of educational technological tools that are independent or little dependent on the internet, to be applied in two schools in the network municipal education system in TrêsCorações, one urban and the other rural, both in the literacy cycle (1st to 3rd year). The proposal was accepted and contact with the managers of the schools was authorized. It is important to highlight that the choice for the literacy cycle is due to the importance of interaction in this phase, as already stated, the legal precept of consolidation of up to eight years for literacy and especially for and with social justice in indicating equal conditions.

The choice of these schools for further research was because the urban school, despite being in a peripheral neighborhood of the city, had most students with average living conditions, which was intentional; and the rural school is in a community with precarious conditions. This study respects the confidentiality of their identifications, thus treating them as urban and rural, respectively.

The question arises: why a rural school? Because, as part of the justification for this investigation, the researcher works as a teacher in a school in a rural community that has particularities in common with the institution studied. The researcher made this choice considering the importance of impartiality, isonomy, and fidelity of information, but without failing to seek answers to her concerns as a teacher in this field, in which she taught for more than 20 years and, therefore, knows many difficulties experienced by rural schools.

The urban school serves around 400 students in the morning and afternoon, divided between kindergarten and the initial years of elementary school, belonging to nearby communities. During the period of emergency remote teaching, activities were planned weekly by teachers following the Minas Gerais Reference Curriculum and sent to pedagogical supervisors and the manager for checking. They were then posted daily, from Monday to Friday, in each class's groups via the Whatsapp application and on the school's Facebook page on Mondays. Students participated in Whatsapp groups to clarify doubts and explain activities with teachers, in addition to sending photos and videos to them. For students without internet access, printed materials such as booklets were available monthly.

The rural school serves approximately 43 students from kindergarten to the 5th year of primary education, full-time, with regular teaching taking place in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. According to the school's PPP, most of the population is black and faces several social problems, including racial acceptance. The school population is characterized, for the most part, by large families with emotional-social needs, and low levels of education, among other needs. These factors significantly influence students’ school lives and directly on learning. Despite the difficulties faced, the community is present and participates in school events and, whenever called for individual matters, attends school.

During the guidance, we chose to list the literacy cycle (teachers from the 1st to 3rd year) as a priority for this study, as we consider it more necessary according to its specificities and complexity since the students belonging to it demanded more attention and presence (interaction and mediation) of the teacher. From that moment on, the research was called “Public schools and literacy during the period of non-face-to-face school activities: the use of technology in the absence of the Internet” (Escolaspúblicas e aalfabetização no período de atividadesescolaresnãopresenciais: o uso da tecnologianaausência da Internet). It is necessary to emphasize, however, that this is not about evaluating and/or researching literacy methods, but rather about the effectiveness of the tools used in situations of non-face-to-face school activities, which, in this situation, is due to the Covid-19pandemic.

Moment 4 was held online via Google Meet with managers, pedagogical supervisors, and teachers from the 1st to 3rd year of the schools. The objective of this moment was to confirm the relationship between non-learning - or deficient learning during the period of non-face-to-face school activities - with the lack of internet access and direct access to the school/teacher. In summary: what impacts did the lack of internet have on students who only received printed activities? What difficulties did teachers, students, school, and family face in this situation?

The necessary and normative procedures were complied with, that is, the schools through the representatives, managers, coordinators, supervisors, and teachers, agreed to contribute to this research by signing the Data Request documents, the Free and Consent Form (TCLE-Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido) and authorization of the use of images, standard documents for this type of investigation. We presented the proposal and the study about the technological tools brought by the Instructional Guide, how to use them, and what possibilities and potential they offered. As previously raised by teachers about the difficulties, it was suggested that they develop theLitirate Now(AlfabetizaJá) project with their students, who already presented this approach, which was accepted.

The continued training of teachers in the use of specific tools aimed at students without the possibility of access to the internet, via media education, contributes to making literacy happen in a more attractive, effective, and inclusive way. This perspective is confirmed by the opinion of the teachers questioned. The organization of the work carried out with teachers from the 1st to 3rd year (literacy cycle) of the respective schools took place through meetings/workshops, with three virtual meetings due to the oriented social distancing, and two face-to-face workshops, following strictly comply with the required health protocols. 11 teachers were participating in this study, three of whom were from rural schools and eight were from urban schools.

The meetings took place intending to mobilize literacy teachers about the importance of literacy in the period most conducive to it and propose a diagnostic assessment to identify non-literate students. However, the challenge was how to evaluate students without internet access, as, for students with access, it was agreed that, in addition to an assessment developed by Google Forms and made available via access link, they could be assessed via video call or, also, in class via Google Meet - which would not be possible for most children, due to the lack of internet. Thus, to have an evaluation result that was more reliable to the objectives, the teachers were willing to schedule an evaluation, especially for reading, through a telephone call, which was done on the spot when possible, or through scheduling. It should be noted that it was already clear, through a survey carried out by the Department of Education, that all families had telephones (SEDUC, 2021SEDUC - Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Três Corações. Levantamento de estudantes sem acesso à internet.Três Corações,2021.).

Moment 5 happened in virtual format. The meeting took place to analyze the results of the diagnostic assessment carried out by teachers with their students. After the analysis, an access link was distributed to teachers to carry out questionnaire 1 (initial) online, containing questions about the use of tools/strategies to teach students in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years to read and write during REANP, and whether, with the strategies, they were able to serve students without internet access, especially to teach them literacy. Therefore, in terms of surveying for further study, we asked teachers to respond to our questionnaire 1/Initial, which had the following questions:

1) Class identification:

From the 1st to the 3rd year, a total of 11 classes and 207 students.

2) The location:

Eight classes from urban schools and three from rural schools.

3) The number of students per class:

An average of 18 students per class.

4) How many of your students have good access, poor access, or no access to the internet?

207 responses.

5) How many of your students are literate, in process/having difficulty, and literate?

207 responses.

Graph 3:
Number of students and internet access

Graph 4:
regarding student learning

The answers presented in the graphs suggest that it is possible to perceive some relationship between internet access and the development of learning. The 74 students with difficulty or without any access to the internet are related to the 88 students who are not literate or have great difficulty learning in this situation of non-face-to-face classes. Students “without information” are those with whom it was not possible to obtain contact, who did not participate in synchronous or asynchronous classes, and who did not carry out printed activities. These students belong to the schools' active search framework, known as absent, truant, or not found. This situation worsened even more during the pandemic period, because, if in a “normal” situation, school dropout was already a problem in Brazilian education, due to public policies, in this situation, public policies did not even exist - a concern that this research also addresses.

6) Regarding the use of the tools below during REANP, mark how many students you used or use them with.

11 answers.

Graph 5:
Educational technological tools used in ERE (Emergency Remote Education-Ensino RemotoEmergencial) or REANP (Emergency Regime for Non-In-Person School Activities-Regime Emergencial de AtividadesescolaresNãoPresenciais)

The data in the graph shows that, for around 80 of the 207 students, it was not possible to use the technological tools mentioned in the question. Their contact with the school was only through printed activities (booklets) and the textbook.

According to the teachers, there was difficulty in preparing and developing classes/activities at REANP. For students who had access to the internet, classes were developed via Google Meet, using various applications and YouTube videos produced as a complement to classes. For students without or with poor internet access, printed activities were produced, and they used the textbook, which for them was not enough nor efficient, as already demonstrated in the learning results. For this audience to be served, it was necessary to make use of educational technological tools that are independent or little dependent on the internet, such as those presented in the Instructional Guide, the result of this research, such as CDs, Pendrives, cell phones and computers in offline mode, bringing to them the same recorded classes for those with internet access.

7) Could a teaching guide with tools and instructions for preparing and developing activities and remote classes help?

11 answers.

Graph 6:
Quantitative about the importance of an Instructional Guide to aid learning

Given the live exhibition on YouTube and the virtual meetings in which they discussed the possibilities of resources through ICTs as educational media, the teachers realized that they needed specific guidance aimed at helping them in the production and development of their classes so that all students could be attended to and taught.

By carrying out field research and collecting data that highlighted the difficulty of most teachers in serving all their students during the period of non-face-to-face school activities, due to little internet access, this research produced, as a result of the studies, the Instructional Guide. Its purpose was to assist teachers in the use of technological tools, ICTs/education media. The Guide presents tools and instructions for their instrumental, creative, and critical use.

With the survey questionnaires answered by the teachers who took part in this research, the meeting was held, still virtual, in which the tabulation and subsequent reflective and critical analysis of the data obtained with the application of the questionnaire were presented. The conclusion is that students without internet access - those who only received printed activities - were not learning or being literate. Another important fact is the ineffectiveness of the tools used (printed material) to teach and especially teach these children literacy. Based on the data, it was concluded that there was a need to develop strategies to serve these children, and classes and their activities would also be available through alternative means and not just through printed material (booklets).

The situation experienced by schools and their teachers during periods of non-face-to-face school activities and/or others in which students are unable to go to school, such as difficulties with school transport, problems with access, bad weather, health and work issues, require effective and inclusive actions. Thus, the tools presented in the Guide are those capable of facilitating learning and knowledge for students who do not have internet access or access it in an unsatisfactory manner.

ICTs play a fundamentally important role in teaching, in creative development, with a critical approach to mitigate social injustices arising from the historical-cultural process. In this sense, it is important to have as a guiding axis for competent actions, the disparities between students in public and private schools, central and peripheral schools, and urban and rural schools, since, as it is a fundamental right, the education offered does not need to be equal, but there needs to be equal conditions.

The 11 teachers who took part in this research used the Guide and started to make the activities available to their students without internet access via CD, pendrive, and with resources in offline mode, accompanying the printed material produced by them. Because of the students who did not have any of the means, a Solidarity Literacy campaign was developed, in which people who have such equipment and no longer use it were able to donate it to the families of children to be literate, and, in this way, the classes gained the color of the screens in the video classes presented by teachers Alfa and Beto (Natali Borba de Castro and Alisson Apipe). Thus, literacy classes were produced in a playful, attractive, procedural, and meaningful way.

Figure 6:
Teacher's interlocutors of the video classes

Figure 7:
Distribution of equipment and recorded and printed classes

The material was well received by the entire school community, highlighting the fact that the AlfabetizaJá! also reached the children's families, who were also illiterate and who, from the television screen or cell phone, could learn together with the children the fantastic discovery of the world of reading. Classes, which were previously sent on paper, are now also sent on CD, pendrive, memory card, downloaded or shared on Drive for viewing in offline mode, enabling learning and literacy, as well as made for students with internet access through video classes, recording applications and live classes.

At that moment, the 6th evaluation (Final Questionnaire/2) took place in person with the teachers involved in the research.

1) Were the difficulties presented in the preparation and development of classes/activities in the REANP (Emergency Regime for Non-In-Person School Activities) or the hybrid format minimized?

11 answers.

Graph 7:
Impacts generated after using the Instructional Guide

2) In your opinion, do recorded classes, complementary videos, as well as the use of applications, contribute to learning?

11 answers.

Graph 8:
Quantitative on the importance of using technological tools

When asked about the contribution of the Instructional Guide with tools that are independent of the internet for the elaboration and development of activities and non-face-to-face and/or hybrid classes, the 11 teachers said that the Guide contributed to aid their teaching work. In this way, we can conclude that technological tools, such as media education, fulfill the objective of helping teachers in the task of serving their students without internet access and who were and/or are unable to attend school.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The scenario imposed by the covid-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of the past: for teachers to know how to use technology. This is not about modern and advanced technologies, but about those possible and necessary to make knowledge reach those who need it and, above all, of right totheir students. Many professionals, competent in the task of human development, feel powerless and even incompetent in the dilemmas they experience in classrooms, whether physical, remote, and/or virtual, from a face-to-face, distance, or hybrid teaching perspective. It is important to analyze that, when it comes to access to knowledge of new languages, this factor is not restricted only to students, but also to teachers.

Even though schools and teachers strive to ensure continuity of teaching during periods of non-face-to-face school activities for children without internet access, using, for example, the distribution of printed material, this action is not enough for learning to happen. ICTs, as educational media, are a possibility and a way to overcome the problematization in the field of education, which the school, in the face of past and contemporary emergencies linked to the use of technologies, aims to mitigate. The existing technological possibilities and alternatives, which are independent of the internet or have little dependence on it, are extremely important in indicating responses to the situation. Media and/or technological tools in online or offline modes favor communication, expression, and the construction of narratives, as well as the teaching/learning processes. This challenge finds fertile ground in the context because the possibilities expand due to the opportunities.

As it was possible to conclude through the data collected, there is difficulty for most teachers, especially in the initial years, in serving all their students during periods of non-face-to-face school activities because of the lack of access to the internet, specifically in the need for initial and continued training in the use of specific tool(s) aimed at these students. In this way, learning, and access to information and knowledge, can happen and be consolidated from an effective, affective, and inclusive perspective. To this end, studies and actions in this regard are essential, seeking to contribute to ensuring the guarantee of education and the right to learning for all children are fulfilled and that teachers are accommodated in their real needs.

Therefore, it is in this context that the research Public schools and literacy during the period of non-face-to-face school activities: the use of technology in the absence of the internet(Escolas públicas e a alfabetização no período de atividades escolares não presenciais: o uso da tecnologia na ausência da internet) aimed to present to literacy teachers, through the Instructional Guide Exploring Technologies in the Absence of the Internet, technological alternatives via media-education, which contributed to the literacy of students without internet access in non-face-to-face school activities, as well as the possibility of developing critical, creative and instrumental pedagogical activities with them.

REFERÊNCIAS

  • 1
    Article published with fundingf rom theConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico- CNPq/Brazil for editing, layout and XML conversion services. The translation of this article into English was funded by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES/Brasil.
  • 2
    Magda Soares presents the term Alfaletrar, expanded in this research to Alfaletramento, in the multidisciplinary sense regarding the appropriation, exploration and application of knowledge acquired and produced in all curricular components, as well as in the activities that engender the curriculum.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    02 Sept 2024
  • Date of issue
    2024

History

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