IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC: THE USE OF THE WHATSAPP APPLICATION AS A TEACHING AND PEDAGOGICAL TOOL IN A STATE SCHOOL IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF BOCA DO ACRE- AM

Abstract

The effective use of information and communication technologies has become an important practice in the globalizing context that requires innovation in the classroom and improvement in the quality of educational processes. The effectiveness of these technologies was accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic period in various parts of the planet and, in particular, in the State of Amazonas, whose students from state schools were served by CEMEAM, a department of SEDUC/AM. Due to the suspension of in-person classes, due to the social isolation policy, SEDUC/AM implemented the Special Regime for Non-In-Person Classes, the “Class at Home” Program, offering remote classes, broadcast by CEMEAM, and received by students at their houses. In this sense, with the purpose of verifying the efficiency and effectiveness of this Program, this article aims to discuss: The mechanisms used by CEMEAM; to what extent the Program met the needs of schools and students; the way in which the activity planning process occurred with students and teachers during this period; the technological resources used to send material, and the percentage of acceptance of resources by the school community. For this purpose, documentary research was developed with one of the schools in the Municipality of Boca do Acre/AM, using a qualitative-quantitative approach, highlighting the procedures and tools most used in the school in question, as well as the results obtained during pedagogical monitoring in the Municipality, whose didactic and pedagogical activities were carried out using WhatsApp, Meet and Youtube. The research demonstrated that in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, the use of WhatsApp as a teaching and pedagogical tool proved to be an efficient alternative to guarantee the continuity of learning.