FACEBOOK 'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MATH LITERACY IN THE 3RD YEAR PRIMARY EDUCATION

Abstract

Developed in a conceptual context of a connected society, in cyber-cultural times, in which the use of new technologies in education is a reality, this dissertation consists of a case study of a qualitative nature. The starting point is to analyze the possibilities of use and knowledge-building that Facebook enables to mathematics literacy for third-grade students of Elementary Education in a public state school in São Francisco de Paula, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The theoretical references of the dissertation are: New Technologies in Education - highlighting the experiences in Brazil and Portugal since the beginning of its trajectories (historic and legal) of insertion of technology in education; social networks and Facebook present in the Web 2.0 the interactive context - allowing Facebook to be a tool with possibilities of use and mediation in a Mathematics teaching school environment; and, the latter, breaking the dichotomy of theory and practice associated to the theoretical branch of ethnomathematics, as a booster of significative learning based on the daily experiences of the students. The main results were: (i) the interest of the students, regarding their encouragement of the use of social networ Facebook as a support of mathematical knowledge, has significantly increased, strengthening participation and involvement in the classroom; (ii) the vast majority of students did not have significant knowledge about Facebook social network in both their daily experiences and on their contributions for an educational proposal inserted in the school; (iii) the development of the proposed activities for the intervention, based on conventional and arbitrary length measurements, in the third year of elementary school, offered the opportunity of deepening the knowledge of the Facebook tool, as a support for the resolution of problem situations.