Abstract
This study was developed from the Programa Rede São Paulo de Formação Docente – Redefor, regarding the specific section of execution and management under the responsibility of the University of São Paulo (Redefor - USP). From the netnography approach, it seeks to understand how the self-perceptions of the enrolled participants are developed and established in the virtual educational context and its consequences in personal, family and school everyday environments. The aim is to observe their digital literacies, understood as components of an integrated, cohesive and holistic set of skills and expertise - in continuous process of acquisition and development - that allow the individual not only navigate and communicate in the Internet, but it also obtain, produce and distribute information, knowledge, meanings, narratives and representations of themselves and the world they live.
TopBackground
The accelerated growth conditions of supply and access to personal computers from the second half of the 1980s and the use of the Internet, especially the end of the last decade, major changes were introduced in the communication and information environment of contemporary Brazilian society. With the progressive development and incorporation of global access to different types of information network - occurred from the United States in the late 1990s - the Internet was soon to be opened also to the business environment. In Brazil, it came to pass in 1994. The main technological achievements that defined this period and that definitely boosted its development on a global scale were the creations of the world wide web (WWW), the hypertext transfer protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - HTTP) and Hypertext Markup Language (Hyper Text Markup Language - HTML).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): Heterogeneous set of techniques, systems and devices and / or electronic platforms, intelligent machines and computer networks that permeate social life. They are constantly growing and can be fixed or mobile, free or paid. They can also be defined as technologies and tools used to create, edit, share, distribute and consume digital content through the use of computers and networks of interconnected computers.
Web 2.0: A term popularized by Tim O'Reilly to refer to new types of media companies using social networks, user-generated content or moderate content by the user, regarded as creators of new values, through the support of participatory culture and exploration of the collective intelligence of its consumers.The term Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of tools and services available on the internet, which enabled the expansion of the forms of direct participation of networked actors, including the creation and sharing of information and online content. The main tools of Web 2.0 today are: messaging services (e-mail), blogs, forums, wikis (Wikipedia), social networks (Facebook, Orkut and others), search engines (Google, Yahoo!) and systems connection, production, publishing and interaction with photos, sounds, music, videos (podcast, videocast, Flickr, YouTube, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Google Voice, etc.). Virtual Communities: A term coined by Howard Rheingold in 1993 to designate the group of people networked and personal relationships and / or professionals that involve, noting that common goals and practices are the glue that unifies its members.
Collective Intelligence: Term coined by Pierre Lévy to designate the ability of virtual communities to leverage the knowledge and expertise of its members, usually through collaboration and large-scale discussion. For the author, this is a new form of power.
Digital Immigrants: Concept created by Marc Prensky, who opposed the digital natives, aims to define individuals who, although not born into the digital world by need or interest dive in it, adopting their new technologies and tools, applying to their learning and adapting to the demands of the new virtual environments.
Interactivity: Action that can be classified into analog-mechanical or electronic-digital. In the first case, the action takes place between the subject and the camera, while in the second, beyond this instance, interactivity expands to cover the information, or content. It makes sense, in the latter case, draw attention to the appearance of interfaces, understanding them as interactive contact zones and exchange of information between man and machine.
Social Networking: Social structure consisting of individuals and organizations connected by one or more types of relationships, sharing common values and objectives. The main characteristics that define them are: 1) Opening and porosity, which enable horizontal and not hierarchical relationships among participants; 2) self-generation of its own design. The online social networks can operate at different levels, for example, social networks (Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Twitter and others), highly focused networking in professional interests (LinkedIn), among others.