PERSPECTIVA DE ALUNOS DO ENSINO SUPERIOR SOBRE BRINQUEDOTECAS EM AMBIENTES VIRTUAIS DE APRENDIZAGEM

PERSPECTIVE OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS ON PLAY ROOMS WITHIN VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Learning virtual environments became classrooms shared by the current generation. Within that context, virtual play rooms become an attractive locus due to its articulation proposal linking recreation with technology, being explored both by children as well as adults in undergraduate courses. Undergraduate courses on Pedagogy and Design are the ones which most make use of such classrooms, but have students of different fields of knowledge ever had access to them and experience within virtual play rooms? This paper analyzed both access and experience within virtual play rooms by students of different Higher Education courses and recorded their perceptions on the inclusion of that tool in their learning processes. Being a qualitative research, it comprised 1,441 participating students who responded to an online questionnaire. The results showed that most of the students had not had any access to virtual play rooms and those who had some previous experience in it found that such an experience was positive, including sharing feelings such as social digital inclusion, sharing real and virtual interactions , trying to achieve learning playfully, etc. One came to the conclusion that, from the students’ perspective, play rooms within virtual learning environments, due to the network learning potential provided by them, must be presented within different courses as an innovating teaching and learning proposal for both college students and children.