Um software educativo de exercício-e-prática como ferramenta no processo de alfabetização infantil

Abstract

There exists a growing concern among educators when it comes to the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT s) in the practical day-to-day contact with students. Through its low cost and public policy rules, the computer has shown itself to be a means by which this proposal could be realized. Therefore the objective has been the development, implementation and evaluation of educational software, which favors the integration of ICT s during the process of teaching and learning, and which can be used by the educator as an aid during the child s literacy process as an exercise-practice tool, thus allowing the individual student to interact in their own learning. The software was developed in Flash to combine optimization to the file size as well as speed to the loading of the drawings. The software presents exercises in different difficulty levels, with vibrant colors and sound applications as well as text being a predominant part of the whole environment, which themselves guaranty student motivation and involvement within the proposed framework of exercises. The architecture is made up of two main modules: Graphic Interface and Activities, which is divided into Modeling/Animation and Execution. To validate the proposal, aspects related to the ISO/IEC 9126-1 standard, as well as others which were defined exclusively for research were analyzed together with two groups of students in the 6 year old range, during the literacy phase, in the presence of educators, pedagogues and psychologists, with a total of 15 evaluation members and 24 students. The validation process was analyzed through the use of two methodological instruments: through the observational participation of the software s use by the students, as well as the filling in of a structured questionnaire, or checklist, by the evaluating members, who answer closed questions related to the software s characteristics and its didactic support on a satisfaction rating ranging from 0 to 10. The results showed there exists an effective contribution on behalf of the software as a game style tool with didactic potential, which can guaranty student motivation producing significant learning. There exists a concern on the part of the educational professionals in respect to quality and real efficiency of the computational recourses in the formation of critical thinking citizens, as well as their being reflexive in a knowledge based society. In terms of the computational-technical aspects, the different difficulty levels, the vibrant colors, sound applications and texts, all guaranty student motivation and involvement in respect to the activities provided. The checklist demonstrated satisfactorily, the technological quality when referring to the software s functionality and usability, once that the auxiliary needs of the educator were met and the students did not find any difficulties in its use.