Os dispositivos e episódios interacionais do Projeto Newton da Universidade Federal do Pará

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the analysis of Interactional devices and Interactional Episodes that configure the communication processes of the Newton Project, we are seeking to understand how these processes demonstrate the involvement of technology in the construction of meaning by the participants of the established relationship system. Such processes are called, for Braga (2012c), as Social Invention Interactional Steering, when technology adds value to society, showing that the importance is not in the apparatus but in the communicative processes. The Newton Project is an experimental action, of the Federal University of Pará, for the qualification, of Calculus education to Engineering students. We chose this project as empirical object for tensioning the theory as we consider an innovative proposal in the education field by combining canonical and contemporary practices woven from the media. Thus, we use concepts of Braga (2011c; 2012b), Interactional Devices are the places where we can explain the system of relations and realize the Interactional Episodes, from which we developed the methodology of observation and description indicated by the author. Thus, we analyze the system of relations constituents of communication processes in Newton Project in four identified devices: the Lesson Program, which is configured as the central device of the fabric of communication processes in the Project, as well as tutoring, Moodle and Facebook, these are know to us, as environments of widespread interaction. In the analysis, we find that the interaction processes are tentative and their intensity and their extent depend on the articulations, exchanges and negotiations held by the subjects. Although students, as young people, are accustomed to the use of ITCs in daily life, there is a huge difficulty of breaking culturally constituted educational habits. This occurs not only with students but also with teachers, tutors and others envolved in the project team with members of different backgrounds. Thus, while we realize that education is distant from the meaning of life, it is impossible to turn it into Social Invention Interactional Steering.