Do toque ao sentido: pesquisa-intervenção com crianças usando tablets na educação infantil

Abstract

The article “From Touch to Meaning: An Intervention-Research with Children Using Tablets in Early Childhood Education” analyzes the relationship of children aged 4 to 5 with Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICTs), particularly tablets, in a public school classroom (CApTV/UFAL). It aims to understand how educational practices mediated by these devices are configured, focusing on the interactions among children and between them and adults, as well as the contributions and challenges of their pedagogical integration. This is an intervention-research with a qualitative approach, which articulates a systematic literature review produced in Brazil and a field investigation. Data generation involved participant observation, video recordings, interviews with the teacher, and questionnaires with guardians, organized into eight workshops using tablets. The results indicate that the intentional and mediated use of the devices can broaden learning experiences, foster children’s authorship, and stimulate an active search for information by the children, who use tablets to answer curiosities and expand their repertoires. At the same time, concerns from guardians emerge regarding screen time and the quality of content accessed at home, which highlights the need for greater dialogue between school and family. The study advocates for the critical integration of DICTs as part of children’s right to contemporary cultural artifacts and underscores challenges in infrastructure and continuing education, so that technology may act as a means for integral development, and not as an end in itself.