ICT and education in Brazil - NGO, local government administration, business and higher education expert perspective

Abstract

The paper aims to present the conditions surrounding the use of ICTs in Brazilian schools. The goal of the study was to offer a wide perspective that included the opportunities, barriers, transfer of knowledge, and challenges related to introducing information technology into education. The technique used was qualitative - an expert interview with four experienced respondents. The individuals interviewed represented different areas of professional activity: the academic sector, the implementation of practical activities in schools, pedagogical supervision, and the development of commercial software. The study was conducted in 2019, as part of the expert conference CBIE (Congresso Brasileiro de Informática da Educação – Brazilian Conference on Computers in Education). The results of the analyses reveal that the challenges of implementing ICT in educational processes are similar to those found in the global perspective. According to these experts, Brazil faces similar issues to those found in other countries, namely: the appropriate preparation of teachers in the use of ICT, supplying schools with high-speed and up-to-date hardware and software, encouraging teachers to use ICT, the re-constitution of educational policies, and changes in administering IT resources within schools.

Keywords: ICT; Brazil; school; computers; Internet; information society; experts; interview; SELI;