Digital inclusion and the challenges for educational innovation in Brazil and Colombia Inclusión digital y los retos para la innovación educativa en Brasil y Colombia

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the aspects of digital inclusion in Brazil and Colombia, and the challenges to education and, especially, the processes of educational innovation mediated by digital information and communication technologies (DICT). The reflections about of subject are based on the work conducted in the mark of a larger empiric research on influence of socioeconomic level and learning experiences of Brazilian and Colombian undergraduates DICT-mediated. From a situated and sociocultural approach, this paper is based on three convictions. First considers that the DICT are important sociocultural artefacts that mediate the social practices, configuring a new ecology of learning. Second refers to the fact that, in information society, the conditions of access and use of the DITC are not equally for all, taking into account the influence of the economic power of different countries and socioeconomic levels of the people. Third conviction is that the different people experiences of access and use of DICT reverberate on the educational opportunities, restricting or expanding them and leading to the construction of different learning trajectories. In this sense, from the aspects of digital inclusion in Brazil and Colombia, the challenges that are posed to education are analyzed, especially the processes of educational innovation.