Crianças na contemporaneidade: entre as demandas da vida escolar e da sociedade tecnológica

Abstract

This article discusses the possible tensions between the way the school organizes itself in order to fulfillits role of cultural transmission and the increasing demands of the technological society, such as those competences requiredby the information technologies. It is argued that the present school organization is related to one mode of world presentationdifferent from that which grounds the technological innovations of the contemporary consumer culture. These two ways ofworld presentation to children involve different affective and cognitive processes. The aim of the empirical research conductedin a private school in Rio de Janeiro was to examine how students related their technological and school experiences. Themethodology consisted of a participant observation in a 3rd grade class of elementary school, complemented with interviews.The results showed four axes along which it is possible to characterize the shifts promoted by technology in the modesof subjectification: learning, concentration, time/space, and effort/pleasure. We conclude that the empowerment given tochildren, by the access to technology may become void. It is the role of educators to reflect about how this power can take acourse which helps children to make a more productive use of information technologies.

Keywords

• Children
• Technological Society
• Education
• School.