Large Scale Deployment of Tablet Computers in K-12 Schools in Brazil

The presentation provided information on the large scale implementation of tablet computers for teachers in Brazil. The Brazilian project offers a very interesting research scenario for western countries, since this country is fairly aligned with the western culture, tradition and behavior. However, the Brazilian experience can be replicated in very different countries of the world, even those that are culturally different. Few countries in the world have an organized and somehow centralized education system, with such number of students (8 million), to propitiate the opportunity to research on large scale deployment of the use of tablet computers in classroom. When the research is completed, the results will be published for wide dissemination.Different sectors of the society of many countries have been demanding for significant improvements in their education systems and teaching and learning practices in recent years (Keller, 2008; Latchem & Hanna, 2001). The need of keeping or developing competitiveness has been the main reason for these calls. These countries has been faced some challenges in terms of lack of skilled works, capacity of resilience from the labor market to deal with dramatic economic changes, and the pursuit for more productivity based on the use of technology. Brazil is a good example of these countries. It has been struggling to improve its public basic education in order to keep the conditions for developing. One of the initiatives to do it is changing the education paradigm in K12 schools with the use of tablet computers in a large scale deployment. This paper describes the social scenario that has leaded to this initiative and how it has been made in a huge country, involving hundreds of thousands of tablet computers for K12 schools