CETIC.br discusses the role of educators in the critical use of the Internet by children and teenagers

The challenges of the critical use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by children and teenagers in Brazilian schools and homes were discussed this week at the auditorium of the Brazilian British Center in São Paulo. The debate included the presence of Brazilian and foreign experts dedicated to the education sector and marked the launch of the publications of the 2013 ICT Education Survey and the 2013 ICT Kids Online Brazil Survey by the Regional Center of Studies for the Development of the Information Society (CETIC.br), which had their main results presented during the event.

Under the theme "The role of educators in training children and teenagers for the critical use of ICT", the meeting gathered Guilherme Canela from the Regional Science Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for Latin America and the Caribbean, Maria Luiza Belloni from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Mario Volpi from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Venâncio Massingue from the Research Institute for Science, Innovation and ICT in Mozambique, with the mediation of journalist and communication and rights consultant Veet Vivarta.

In the opening speech of the meeting, the director-president of NIC.br, Demi Getschko, highlighted a statistic revealed by the ICT Kids Online Brazil 2013 Survey. The proportion of children and teenagers who perceive risks on the Internet is higher than that of the parents. Only 8% of parents and guardians believe their child has experienced any uncomfortable or embarrassing situation on the Internet, while 77% of children and teenagers assess that the Internet has attributes that can bother them.

Alexandre Barbosa, manager of CETIC.br, was the next to speak. In addition to presenting the main highlights of each survey, he posed challenges for public policies related to the subject. How can parents mediate their children's Internet use if a large part of them (46%) are not Internet users? Or how does the use of ICT in classrooms effectively represent an improvement in student performance? These were some of the questions raised by Barbosa.

Debate

Moderator Veet Vivarta started the discussion by reminding that authorities should continue investing so that more people can access ICT. "We must celebrate concrete advances, but digital inclusion must remain our focus of attention," he warned. Guilherme Canela, in turn, pointed out that it is not enough for public policy to provide infrastructure without covering teacher training. "Distributing computers without support is like being in the Rosetta Stone era and distributing stones. It is not sufficient," he compared.

Maria Luiza Belloni highlighted the challenge of forming creative, critical, responsible, and civic use of ICT. "We want to educate new generations, but who educates us? We need to skip stages," she commented on teacher training and qualification. In the professor's assessment, by educating children with art, science, and technology, educational institutions force teachers to train themselves. She also emphasized the responsibility of the creators of media messages that populate the children's universe, in line with data on children's advertising consumption revealed in the ICT Kids Online Brazil 2013 Survey.

Mario Volpi discussed the change in the way children and teenagers relate to knowledge and reinforced that young people are increasingly multidisciplinary. "We will not create myths that the Internet is creating more distracted teenagers," he pointed out. According to Volpi, "parents cannot give up decoding the universe of their children, it is necessary to enhance the use of ICT and not to suppress it." Mozambican Venâncio Massingue reinforced the same idea. "Young people should not see ICT as threats, but as tools to solve real problems."

Access the ICT Education 2013 Survey, ICT Kids Online Brazil 2013 Survey, and the infographic with the main highlights at https://www.cetic.br/

Additionally, watch the debate video on our YouTube channel:

This content was automatically translated with the support of artificial intelligence.