INTERVIEW
Considering the territorial dimensions of the country, how the "education without limit" may be the way to a more comprehensive education? Romero Tori - An education without geographical, temporal, media and content limits is more democratic. No matter where the student lives, if he has interest and dedication, he will be able to graduate as well as the privileged ones who have access to the best institutions. Virtual classes, virtual learning communities and open educational content are some of the features that will enable this bigger reach of quality education.
How should Brazilian teachers be trained so that they are motivated and involved in this new scenario of education? Romero Tori - The teachers in general are motivated and like what they do. What many have is a certain insecurity regarding the use of technologies. It is not only a matter of training courses in the use of technologies, because when we just train them to use a certain resource, two new ones have already emerged. The teachers must have access to technologies of the same nature as their students. Improve their wages is a way. Training in active methodologies is also important. In these methods, the teacher doesn’t need to master the technologies used by students, being able to concentrate on the supervision and evaluation of learning.
How can Information and Communication Technologies be used in the best way in pedagogical training? Romero Tori - In the same way that students can graduate from a distance, so do teachers. Participating in trainings that uses new technologies helps the teacher to understand student’s perspective and to familiarize with these media.
One of the trends in education is the blended learning, a concept which seeks harmony between face-to-face and virtual activities. What’s your understanding about this combination? Romero Tori - This solution is the most appropriate because it makes it possible to use the best of each resource in a flexible manner, adapted to the students’ needs and the pedagogical demands, according to the context and the target audience. Why limit education to only one way?
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The basic technology for high speed and quality Internet access is something that shouldn’t even be discussed. All our schools should have had this already, for a long time.
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What are the impacts and challenges of the adoption of technology in higher education?
Romero Tori - The impacts are many, such as: possibility of customization and adaptation of learning; cost reduction; and access to the contents, teachers and remote equipment. Every profession is increasingly using technology. It doesn’t make sense for future professionals to be trained without technology. Take the case of medicine, for example. Many surgeries are performed by videolaparoscopy (the doctor performs the surgery by looking at a monitor and manipulating controls). How would it be better to train a future surgeon, performing procedures on animals or in virtual reality simulators with which he interacts and visualizes the procedures in the exactly same way as in a real surgery? However, the challenges of Brazilian reality are from a cultural nature – in cases where the students’
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