Práticas de Ensino com Aplicativo Photomath: Narrativas Digitais produzidas por Professores Brasileiros

Abstract

Smartphones have gained worldwide popularity for having several
functionalities. The dissemination of its use in developed countries has
caused a growth in the business market of creation of educational
applications with a profitable intentionality, thus lacking a relevant
pedagogical proposal. Currently, we find available for download a variety of
mathematical apps, such as Photomath, which is an app that shows step by
step how to solve certain problems and challenges. However, in Mathematics
Education, the amount of research that reveals the potential of such software
on the teaching and learning process is still small. Therefore, this paper aims
at reporting part of the results of a Graduate MA Program in Education
research, completed in 2018, presenting one of the three categories of
analysis as conceived: The teaching practices with Educational Apps. With
a qualitative approach, the study was developed during the execution of a
further teaching development short course by the extension project
RedeColabora (UFPEL). The research collaborators were 31 Mathematics
teachers from basic education, in exercise at public schools in Brazil. The
teachers developed a teaching practice with the app Photomath and shared
the results of their experiences by means of digital narratives. The
subsequent analysis of these narratives provided indications that the use of
this app can contribute to the Mathematics teaching in five aspects:
pedagogical, social, behavioral, physical and evaluative. It was concluded
that the app was used by the teachers with the intention of introducing,
reviewing and evaluating mathematical concepts, prevailing the use for
checking results and comparing exercise solving.