Microsoft in Education Virtual Forum- Latin America & Caribbean October 30 th, 2014

Project Name: “Approximating cultures" through technology Educator(s): Josane Batalha Sobreira da Silva School or Educational Institution: Colégio Visconde de Porto Seguro – Unidade Valinhos – SP-Brasil Specify the Website: Content / Subjects or Curriculum: Network Technology for collaborative learning with indian children Age / Educational Level or Grade: 9-10 years old 4th grade – Elementary School Project Objectives: Compare the everyday life of our 4th-grade students with that of indian children from Professor Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso School (Borari School), starting with the exploration of themes such as housing, eating, transport and games. Analyze the situation of the students from an indian community nowadays. Approximate different cultures through technology, interactiong through an educational social network. Characterize Borari School’s student’s culture.

Description of the project =dnSM6xYAE7w I've always believed in technology as something that offers the students a space of interaction and knowledge, which enables a variety of ways to improve the teaching-learning process. Thereby, I try to reconcile experiences with the use of new technologies in pairwise exchange. I believe in learning with the notion of mediation, or mediated learning, as modelled by the researcher Lev Vygotsky ( ). According to the sociocultural theory perspective developed by Vygotsky, learning is a joint activity, which collaborative relationships between students can and should have space, mediated by the teacher. In this context enters technology. What if we think of a project where there is interaction between children of the same grade, but with opposite backgrounds, in terms of world and culture? Where they could, through integration, learn more about contents studied in History or Geography? How do indigenous children live today? Planning and Design of the learning environment Also based on the "7 necessary pieces of knowledge for the education of the future", from Morin, Edgar's perspective about teaching human condition and understanding, I tried to work with the cultural diversity theme, knowing the humans, placing them on the universe and interrogating them about our position in the world. We know about the human multidimensionality and complexity, and we try to convey to our students some of this diversity to awaken them to this very complex reality in which we live, and call their attention to what is happening around us. Through an educational social networking platform named FACEDUC, the students of the 4th grade from Colegio Visconde de Porto Seguro have made contact with students of an Indian School in Pará, in the heart of the Amazon, in order to share information such as school and transportation methods, housing and food, fun, games and local traditional festivals, and compare the lifestyles of both groups. The project has comprehended contents of the History-Geography curriculum of the 4th grade in our school. After exchanging information, students registered their thoughts and reflections on their tablet, which were published in a virtual book.

Evidence of Learning Guided by their teachers, six classes from the 4th grade of the Elementary School (early grades) formulated questions within the topics: methods of transportation/school, housing/food, games/local traditional festivals to students of the same grade of Antônio de Souza Pedroso Indigenous School. It took three weeks to exchange questions and answers between the two schools. In addition, the teachers published videos and pictures showing places of their cities, comparing the rivers, lifestyles and cultures. All in all, it was possible to analyze the situation of the students from an indian community today and realize the indian community as "another" different, but not inferior. The children researched about the city "Alter do Chão" to get to know better about the place, and answered mathematical challenges posted on the platform. At the end, they registered their reflections on an Educational Webportal, creating a booklet. We have also noted that the platform enables digital inclusion, new working methods, the knowledge exchange between the students from the Amazon with students in Valinhos/SP. When reading the reports about what they have learned from this experience, we realized that this exchange could establish correlations between the content studied in History and Geography and the reality. In a testimony given by a CVPS student, she says: "I've learned a lot about the Indians, how they eat, how they go to school, how their houses are, their games, Sairé Party, etc. I realized that their lifestyle is very different from ours. They go to school on foot, by boat, or by horse, and we go by bus or car. They play with dolls, spinning-top or indigenous games, while we play videogame of computer games. They live in small houses or hollows, and we live in enclosed and safe communities. They eat natural food and we eat industrialized food. I realized this was a very fun project, so I congratulate who had the idea of creating the "Approximating cultures" project.

Collaboration tapajos/bom-dia- santarem/v/escola-indigena- aposta-em-tecnologias-dentro- da-sala-de-aula/ / Some examples of information exchange on FACEDUC:

Knowledge Construction and critical thinking This project opens a new space for the Indigenous children of Pará. Everyone has benefited from this project: our students were able to experience through technology a lesson that is not in the books, it's in real life. Everything that we study about the indigenous culture really exists, right here in our country. To the students of the Borari School, the FACEDUC opens a new perspective for the education in Pará. Everyone could live a true technological revolution. This is what happens when the school goes beyond the classroom doors. Extending Learning beyond the classroom. Our project showed the difference between "giving lessons" and “having lessons" and the dimension of what it means to overcome the school walls and gates. 21st Century Skills Collaboration Communication Knowledge construction and critical thinking Global awareness & civic literacy TIC for learning Videoconferencing : Testimony: ttps:// ttps://