Laptops e tablets na escola? Plano CEIBAL e os vínculos de proximidades

Abstract

This thesis has as object of research the educational program CEIBAL en Inglés and the project Olimpíada de Robótica, Programación y Videojuegos developed by the CEIBAL Plan (Conectividad Educativa de Informática Básica para el Aprendizaje en Línea). This plan is a public educational policy of social and digital inclusion implemented by the Uruguayan government in 2007, which aims to universalize access to digital technology (computer and Internet), improve the quality of education and bridge the digital divide. Currently, all students and teachers of public education have a portable computer (proprietary or library mode) with free Internet access in various public spaces in the country, such as educational centers, public squares, clubs, libraries, training centers and priority attention districts. The objective of the research is to analyze what kind of images and linkages CEIBAL plan is fomenting through its educational activities, since the electrified and instantaneous communication tends to privilege the hearing and the vision, to the detriment of the touch, smell and taste. This privilege ends up stimulating more distance linkages over those of proximity and intimacy. As we capture the world through our senses and link ourselves through images, the excess of mediations in the communicative process can modify our perception of the present, of the time, of the body and also of our way of socialization. We use as theoretical framework Vilém Flusser’s assertion of Abstraction Theory, Harry Pross’ notion of Theory Media, Boris Cyrulnik’s sense of belonging and the importance of a linkage tutor, Antonio Damásio’s emotion and feeling assertion, Dietmar Kamper’s theory of the loss of the present and the loss of the body, and Norval Baitello Jr.’s notion of linkage, capillaries and communicational environments. From a dialogical perspective to observe, describe and understand the object of research, this thesis presents evidences that even in environments saturated with digital technologies, flat images and abstractions, it is possible to promote communicational environments replete with images and proximity linkages. Therefore, distance images can be turned into proximity linkage factors