eLearning and primary school teacher training in a disadvantaged brazilian context

Swiss Coordinator : Lorenzo Cantoni, Universita della Svizzera Italiana
Main Foreign partner : Maria Ornelia Marques, Federal University of Bahia
Cooperation with : Brazil
Disciplines : Communication Sciences

Abstract
This project aims at studying the impact of eLearning in Primary School Teacher Training in Brazil, assessing its possible applications and advantages, as well as success conditions and shortcomings.

It will add a piece to the international research on the very crucial issue of teacher training in developing countries which face shortages of teachers and lack of qualified teachers; the project explores possibilities and drawbacks of eLearning applications.

The research involves three main areas:

1. The issue of access to ICTs: this involves technical, economic, sociological and psychological factors influencing persons’ opportunities to use the technologies
   
2. The issue of quality: the conditions under which it is possible to implement an effective and efficient eLearning program for primary teachers in disadvantaged Brazilian areas
   
3. The issue of impact: the readiness of Brazilian primary teachers to use eLearning in their training, and their adoption patterns.

The project lasts 36 months and is structured in two main phases:

1. Phase A aims at mapping different models of teacher training programs involving ICTs in Brazil and at understanding the quality of these programs; this is done in order to seek and suggest innovative eLearning models, which can allow effective and efficient learning practices
   
2. Phase B focuses on a particular case study: eLearning courses for primary school teacher training offered by CEAP - Centro de Estudos e Assessoria Pedagogica -, an institution placed in Salvador de Bahia and dealing with teachers working in “community schools”, i.e. schools promoted and sustained by poor communities. This phase wants to understand how primary school teachers in a disadvantaged Brazilian area react to their first eLearning experience along three different dimensions:
   • The impact on their way of teaching and learning;
     
   • The impact on other fields of their life (snowball effect)
     
   • The impact on the transmission of the potentialities of ICTs to their community.
   
   

Contact Addresses:

Lorenzo Cantoni
New Media in Education Lab
University of Lugano
Via Buffi 13, CH-6900 Lugano
Tel +41 58 666 4674
Fax +41 58 666 4647
Lorenzo.cantoni@lu.unisi.ch

Prof. Dr. Maria Ornelia Marques
Centro de Estudo e Assessoria Pedagógica
Av. Leovigildo Figueiras 683
40100-000 Salvador, Bahia
Tel +55 71 3328 3784
Tel +55 71 3328 3783
pesquisa@ceap.org.br