Learning with New Media at the University: From Representations to Utilization

Abstract

The following chapter aims at discussing the possible uses of new media for teacher work at universities based on an analysis of data collected from research carried out at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro’s Department of Education in Brazil. Such research looks at the level of insertion of university students into the computer society and at the representations they make of the new medium. In the first section, responses from students are analyzed, mainly from young scholarship holders from less favored communities in Rio de Janeiro in contrast with other students’ responses. A second section comparatively analyzes the social representations of the book, television, and the Internet made by the students as means to gain information and knowledge. This chapter concludes that one must acknowledge both how youths value new media and the importance of relating presential culture to cyberculture in teaching, as well as the need for a change in mentality on the part of teachers and for their effective training to adopt new media in their pedagogical practice.