PRESENCIAL, REMOTE AND BLENDED CLASSES: WHAT DO STUDENT THINK?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent placement of studies at the remote teaching level firstly and then blended accelerated the discussion on the importance of bringing digital technologies into schools with greater vigor. The present work intends to draw parallels between the different scenarios with the students' speeches. Through a questionnaire on Google Forms, students of technical courses at Uruguaiana Advanced Campus of Instituto Federal Farroupilha were asked about their opinions about remote and blended learning, in addition to their skills with digital technologies. Results showed that students consider themselves autonomous and with good knowledge of digital technologies. This denoted a good development of remote activities despite the fact that the opinions expressed about remote teaching, in which the mastery of technologies is essential, proved to be mostly negative, with criticism focused in particular on problems of connection, interaction and learning in this field. The difficulties ended up prevailing when compared with the benefits provided in their view, which would be, for example, the flexibility of dates and times for classes and activities, as well as the lack of need to travel to the physical space of the school. On the other hand, blended learning had a balance between positive and negative mentions, although these still surpass the first ones. It is concluded that, despite a preference for face-to-face activities, students are open to resources coming from digital technologies into the classroom.