Escolas conectadas? Um novo modelo estrutural de redes computacionais

Abstract

With the passing of the years, a large number of new users are connected to the world wide computer network. Among these new connections are students and teachers inserted in a school environment, with new teaching / learning strategies mediated by the availability of the insertion of new technologies. In order for this promising scenario to be guaranteed, the technological evolution of this context in the educational environment is sought on a daily basis in order to meet the need for a constant increase in the use of TIC in education, thus raising the first questioning guiding: schools have infrastructure and sufficient networking capacity for the satisfactory use of the current technologies available to education? Quality networking of a large number of schools and individuals is a challenge for any public manager, and outsourcing Internet services is the most feasible way to address this issue. However, due to the number of institutions to be served and the prices practiced by the private sector, investment in the sector can often be considered high. As a result, there are insufficient Internet speeds for each school. This difficulty gives rise to the second questioning guiding this work: why do not public bodies, such as municipal governments, become protagonists in the process of building and interconnecting their own networks? The increase of these Internet links, contemplating higher speeds, is undoubtedly a factor to be achieved and, therefore, the public power should plan the emancipation of these networks and take advantage of all the resources that this new architecture provides. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the quality of the computational networks in use in schools, proposing, as final product, a new network model among Santa Maria municipal schools. The present research, developed in the Professional Master's Program in Network Educational Technologies (PPGTER) of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), is a dissertation and guided by the hypothetical deductive approach, based on the hypothesis that the use of new technologies online, in education, is not reaching its fullness, among other problems, due to the quality of connections. Through a case study, visits were made to the municipal schools of the public school system, in order to verify the current scenario regarding the use of the communication network infrastructure. Informal interviews were carried out and questionnaires were applied for further analysis in order to understand the current panorama and justify the new network model to be proposed. The results showed that the Internet speed in schools does not meet the needs, as well as the depreciation of the technological park that, due to lack of investments, does not have a good state of conservation. To meet these shortcomings, public sector investments in technology are needed, such as the purchase of new equipment and, above all, the construction of a new network model in which schools can achieve high-speed connection with each other and not be held hostage by the low speed of private companies.