Digital Technologies in teacher training: Integration of teaching, research and extension

Abstract

Digital technologies (DT) permeate the most diverse fields of human occupation, and education assumes, in this context, a fundamental role in the education of people that are able to face the complexities of a future scenario of rapid changes. Traditional teaching practices do not seem to adequately meet this demand, and teacher training needs to contribute to finding more appropriate paths and training professionals who could follow them with their students. In this perspective, the present chapter aims to report actions directed towards teacher training, promoted by two professors at the Fluminense Federal Institute (Instituto Federal Fluminense - IFF). These actions meet the teaching, research and extension dimensions in an integrated form, and involve the pedagogical use of DT. Research activities with these technologies have been taking place in the scope of the “Information and Communication Technologies in the Teaching and Learning process” project, since 2003, and involve Mathematics undergraduates in the development of didactic resources. These resources are experimented with teachers and undergraduates, and subsequently are used in the Mathematics Teacher Education Degree Program (teaching dimension) and mini-courses for the community (extension dimension). Similarly, the teaching and extension dimensions encourage new research actions, in a continuous cycle, in which the DT are used in various contexts of teacher training. These technologies are always discussed as mediating tools in activities in which students take active roles. These actions have expanded and are now also promoted in Lato and Stricto Sensu Graduate Programs, in teacher training courses. The research described has a trajectory of 15 years and the data obtained during that time indicate that the integration between research, teaching and extension is an important proposal for the promotion of changes in the educational field.