Aplicação do mapeamento geomorfológico digital a partir de software livre no ensino de geomorfologia

Abstract

The advancement of technologies has brought notable transformations to people’s routine, and such changes also impacted the educational ambience, especially in classroom. Furthermore, the advancement of geotechnologies introduced new tools that played a fundamental role in improving Geography teaching in general, thus meeting part of the needs required by the teaching of Physical Geography in terms of updates in teaching methods. The teaching of Geomorphology plays a role of significant importance for Geosciences, as it encompasses the understanding of the configuration of space and the many variables that make up the earth's surface, highlighting aspects analogous to the researcher’s urgency. The post-pandemic context in education appears as a new field of investigation for geographic science, expanding our interest in the influence and consequences in different sectors of society, with emphasis on the educational scope. From this perspective, the objective of this research was to examine the effectiveness of applying digital geomorphological mapping and the use of free software in teaching Geomorphology, through the development of teaching materials that integrate these tools. We sought to evaluate students' perception regarding the teaching-learning process resulting from these practices. In this context, the methodology of this research followed two approaches, the first concerns the indirect approach, through bibliographic review, questionnaire preparation and preparation of teaching material proposal, and the second to the direct approach, which was carried out through the application of teaching material in the classroom during part of the semester and the application of the questionnaire. The development and insertion of tutorials in the teaching of Geomorphology played a fundamental role in the teaching-learning process of students. Your contributions have had a positive impact and can be considered another effective approach for the development of Geomorphology teaching. When analyzing students' perceptions about carrying out digital geomorphological mapping using free software, we conclude that it is valid, as it was possible to see more positive aspects regarding the approach in the classroom, being evaluated by students as a pleasant, easy-to-use, interesting, flexible, practical material, among others. We believe that the implementation of digital geomorphological mapping tutorials can address geomorphological concepts in an objective manner, being able be better acceptance in relation to the content worked in the discipline. However, from the preparation and availability of material with quality Information, prioritizing the use of free resources, such as the use of free software.