The history of the first Brazilian device for ongoing teacher training through information technology

Abstract

The article presents an autobiographical narrative approach to the genesis of the first Brazilian device for ongoing teacher training through information technology, known as the Emerging Technological Information Dissemination System (SDITE). Launched in 1987, during the transition period between the Military Regime and the Democratic Regime, through an initiative funded by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), SDITE was reconfigured in 1992 under the name Latin American Data Communication Network for Technological Education (RedeLET) and, in 2006, became the basis for the e-Tec Brazil Network, which aims to expand and democratize access to public, free technical high school courses through digital networks, through collaboration among the federal government, states, the Federal District, and municipalities. The article brings to light little-known or even unknown facts from the history of Educational Computing in the country and evokes the conceptual foundations of SDITE, which already indicated several innovative perspectives that are currently prominent when it comes to exploring Digital Information, Communication, and Expression Technologies (TICE). SDITE, adopted from 1987 to 1996, followed by RedeLET, adopted from 1996 to 2006, and more recently, the e-Tec Brazil Network, inaugurated in 2006 and still in full operation, together constitute the longest-running experience of ongoing teacher training mediated by TICE in Brazil.