Changes produced by the internet in school life: teachers reactions

Abstract

New forms of production, release and information storage and knowledge have brought deep changes in traditional educational processes. The analysis of 20 interviews carried out with private elementary and high school teachers in the city of Rio de Janeiro was revealing. Their answers, reactions, comments and attitudes indicate that such changes have had a lot of impact and made them experience painful inner conflicts. Nevertheless they are conscious that they need to learn how to deal with some of the new phenomena generated by the Internet, mainly with the excess, the superficiality and constant information update. For this reason they are: reviewing the concepts of information and knowledge; reformulating educational practices traditionally used in school research; trying to adapt themselves to the transformations in the traditional teacher-student relationship in which they once were the powerful and privileged transmitters of knowledge; finally, altering their conception of what means to be a teacher today.