Manual Digital II: A case study at an elementary school

The increasing use of computers daily at school has lead to numerous investigations studying how multimedia educational games are being viewed and used by teachers and students. This work is part of the project Manual Digital II (MD II). The project is financed by Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN), with contract number 2010/013 657, developed under Sistema de Incentivos à Investigação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (SI&DT). It develops in the context of a joint venture between the company Lusoinfo Multimédia and Instituto de Educação da Universidade do Minho. Its main recipients are educators and teachers of primary schools, children and parents. The project aims to produce digital educational contents, based on innovative processes of designing, production and application. In this article, we had the objective to contribute to the knowledge of the reality of the use of MDII in the formal context of a classroom, to recognize teaching strategies adopted by a teacher and to identify major barriers to the effective use of these contents. The present study, in the form of a case study, took place during the months of April, May and June 2012 about a fourth grade class of an elementary school. Results show that the educational games in the classroom can be, in fact, features drivers of new strategies for teaching and learning. However, their use alone does not determine a most successful learning process, so it is important to understand the limitations on the effective use of these digital means. We identified one of these limitations: teacher training in the area of Information Technology and Communication (ICT) for development of digital skills, methodological and educative. We understand that this is a crucial factor that can make a difference later to a more effective use of these new educational resources.