TELEDUC - WORKSHOP OF PHILOSOPHY AT DOM JOSE PUBLIC SCHOOL May 2007

Experience report accomplished with some High School pupils of State School “Dom Jose de Camargo Barros” from Indaiatuba, SP, in the discipline of Philosophy, who have been using TelEduc learning virtual environment named “Workshop of Philosophy at Dom Jose Public School - both synchronous and asynchronous, since July 2005. The article presents the performance of the pupils in the main environment tools and the results of two surveys about the use and evaluation made by the pupils during the presencial teaching in the discipline and in the suggested proposals for research carried outside thef classroom.

The Virtual Environment of Learning (VEL) -TelEduc Workshop of Philosophy at Dom Jose Public School [1] is a project developed since July 11, 2005, with pupils of first, second and third "series" which belongs to the Teaching Management of Capivari -State Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo, with support of lodging of the Nucleus of Computer Science applied to Education (NCSE) of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP).
The VEL is classified as a Technology of Support to the presencial classes of Philosophy, as Glossary of Education to long-distance [2].
This workshop has as manager the Team of the NCSE of UNICAMP, directed by Mr. Manoel Lourenço Filho [3] that offers the lodging of the environment, with the support technician.The license for the use of this resource was granted by the teacher Dra.Heloisa Vieira, the Coordinator [4] of the TelEduc project.
The designing, organization, coordination and the formation (?) of the Workshop are in charge of teacher Gentil Gonçales Filho [5], graduated in Philosophy, who is a teacher at Dom José High School whose director is the teacher Edson Luis Serva.
This workshop has been motivated by the qualification "Philosophy and Life" developed by the State Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo (SSE-SP) in 2005.The Rector of UNICAMP was responsible for the organization of the semi-presence courses (modules) which began in May, with the participation of the teachers of the University of Education and History and the Team of EAD (Distance Education) of the Computing Center (CCUEC), and of the Special Coordination of Teaching Norms (SCTN) directed by teacher Valeria Souza.Teachers of Philosophy have been using the resources of the TelEduc for the semi-presence modules.During the course (module), teacher Edilene Aparecida Ropoli of the EAD's Team of the CCUEC of UNICAMP made a lecture about the use of the TelEduc.From this moment on, attempts have been made to set up the VEL at "Dom Jose de Camargo Barros", but the school conditions were not appropriate for that.Due to it, the developers of the TelEduc Project at UNICAMP were contacted and the project was implemented.
Since its implementation, 330 people enrolled at it and have been classified into the following categories: conform the target-public, among: and inscription not-valuated, inscriptions accepted and inscriptions rejected.Currently there are 108 pupils enrolled: nine pupils of 1ªs series, 51 pupils of 2ªs series and 47 pupils of 3ªs series.There are also 12 guests, among teachers, Sub directors, Directors and other professional such as Supervisors and well as the Government Authorities of the government and callers.The workshop still has two preceptors and a coordinator.
The tools used for the Management in the VEL are: Student View, Environment Structure, Course Dynamics, Agenda, Evaluations, Activities, Support Material, Readings, Frequently Asked Questions, Exercises, Required Stop, Bulletin Board, Discussion Forums, Chat, Mail, Groups, Profile, Diary, Portfolio, Access, Intermap, Configure, Administration, Support and Exit.The permanent tools available for the pupils are: Environment Structure, Course Dynamics, Agenda, Evaluations, Activities, Support Material, Discussion Forums, Mail, Configure and Exit; and the provisional ones are: Frequently Asked Questions, Readings, Exercises, Bulletin Board, Required Stop, Groups, Profile, Diary and Portfolio.
In the tool Environment Structure there is a description of the purposes of the main tools in the TelEduc, with one brief presentation of them, with explanations of the access to the environment and the use of the license of allotment and modification granted by the NCSA.In the tool "Course Dynamics" there is an explanation of the methodology of the use of VEL as a support to witness class of the discipline Philosophy, stimulating the research.
The tool "Agenda" presents an appointment of the workshop tasks and the main occurrence of the witness classrooms.They are updated weekly, with exception of the especial dates like: Teacher's Day, Appraisal Accomplishment Test, Debates involving all the series through the tool Directed Chat, Qualification in the CCUEC of UNICAMP, International Day of Philosophy, etc.In 2005, 22 weeks of course had been carried through 24 referring updates.In 2006, 51 updates in 48 weeks of course had been carried through.So far in 2007 they have been 14 updates in 12 weeks of the course.The tool "Agenda" has fixed parts like: the humanized drawing of a owl, the Philosophy symbol that means brilliant and sparkling, predilection bird of Goddess Athena [8], gratefulness to the Team of the NCSA and the EAD of UNICAMP and the identification of the VEL as support to witness class of the discipline Philosophy.The changeable pieces report properly occurrence and tasks allude to progress accomplishments of the TelEduc Workshop of Philosophy at the Dom Jose.
In the tool "Evaluations" one meets the results of evaluations (?) and the indications of future evaluations, with the respective values, objectives and criteria.In average, the values of the tasks were: 0, 25; 0, 50; 1, 00 and 2, 00.Since the creation of the workshop 35 Evaluations were carried out.
In 2005, 19 Evaluations were proposed: four Evaluations using the tool of the individual portfolio (asynchronous activity), eight Evaluations using the tool Chat (synchronous activity), six Evaluations using the tool individual exercises (asynchronous activity) and one Evaluation using the tool "Discussion Forums" (asynchronous activity).
In 2006, 12 Evaluations were carried out: nine Evaluations using the tool "Discussion Forums" (asynchronous activity) and three Evaluations using the tool Chat (synchronous activity).
In 2007, until the present date, four Evaluations were carried out: three Evaluations using quarrel the Forums' tool (asynchronous activity) and an Evaluation using the tool of Chat (synchronous activity).
In the tool "Activities" there are explanations of 20 activities, four are connected with the tool Evaluations and 16 without this resource.They are: Evaluations Questionnaires, Evaluations Exercises, Writings, Debates, "Discussion Forums" and Interpretation of texts, this can be shared with the preceptors or this totality shared with the participants.
The tool "Support Material" contains 17 presentations of slides about philosophical topics boarded in the classroom, this was shared only with the preceptors.In the first series: "What it is Philosophy?" -Initial Concepts about the discipline; "Philosophical Questions" -about the characteristics of the Philosophy and its utility; "Pre-Socratics Thinkers" -about the main Cosmological Thinkers of the period that precedes the origin of the Philosophy; "Patristic Philosophy" -about the philosophical period of the sprouting of the Christianity; "Medieval Philosophy" -About the philosophical period called The Medieval Ages In the second series: "Knowledge" -about the forms of human knowledge, in especial: the mythical, with main attention to the Myth of the Cave of Platoon of Athens; "Scientific knowledge" -about the History of the Epistemology; "Ideology" -about the ways of thinking in society; "Work and Alienation" -definitions about the concepts and "Culture" -definitions of Culture.
The third series contains the following contents: "Politics" -definition of the concept and its disfigurements; "Politics' History" -main philosophical chains and the Democracy; "Ethics" -definition and reflection on the values; aesthetic -definition and reflections about the art and the beauty and "New vices" -considering the History of the vices in our society.
The tool "Readings" has 23 indications of readings and studies that complement the ""Support Material" and that they boarded other subjects of Philosophy or Education to the long-distance.Amongst them: about the topical "Ideology", the indication of the video "Barbarous Invasions"; about the "Introduction and the Philosophy History", the mention of the book and CD "The World of Sofia"; About the "Pre-Socratics Thinkers", the indication of the reading of the "First Greeks"; on the "Patristic Philosophy", the indication of a site about the subject; about the "Medieval Philosophy", the indication of the site about Saint Thomas Aquinas.About "The Program" to be developed in the indication of the reading of the "Curricular Orientations of High School in discipline of Philosophy"; Indications of free books about Philosophy and Education to the distance of access to the Internet; Books Casting, Search Mechanisms and individual articles published in Newspaper of the region.
The tool "Frequently Asked Questions" presents the most frequent questions in the discipline of Philosophy, among them: "What is the World made of?"; "Who was Socrates?";"Can the subject God be considered philosophical?"; "What is the role/function of science?" and "Are jazz, rock and graffiti arts?".The answers are of the main philosophical schools during the Philosophy's History.
The tool "Exercises" presents evaluations and individual tests through writing questions, multiple choose, columns matching, true and false.They constitute the collection of a Questions' Library, that will be able associate to consist in collection of a Exercises' Library, being applied according to the progress of the course.Six exercises about the topics: "Patristic Philosophy", "Medieval Philosophy", "Work and Alienation", and "Aesthetic" have been available until the present date, The tool "Survey" consists of the accomplishment of three surveys carried out with the pupils of the TelEduc Workshop of Philosophy at Dom Jose: 1 -UNICAMP of open doors -pupils were invited to know the project; 2 -Pupil on-line -learning and participation in the environment of the TelEduc 3 -Evaluation in the discipline Philosophy, using the TelEduc.
The tool "Required Stop" has presentations boarding firstly Related to the program of Philosophy developed in the school years; the purport of learned in the area of Sciences Human; Term of use of image and term of responsibility filled out by the responsible for the pupils; Glossary of EAD terms; Tools of the TelEduc for pupils to use; video lecture presented by the Teacher Dr. Heloisa Rocha boarding the Evaluation question of the TelEduc environment.
In the tool "Bulletin Board" meet it the main notice involving the discipline Philosophy, in the self school, in the teaching management, the initiatives of the university and the rest organizations, with the mention to accomplishment of courses, lectures, interviews and others events of the area.
The tool "Discussion Forums" currently contains 25 forums of newsgroup, that they look for development of the pupil, "the possibilities to debate, taking a position, defending it with argument and changing position through the most consistent arguments " [9].There are 13 newsgroups linked with the tool "Evaluation" and 12 of them without the linking.The developed forums are the following: "What did you think about the series 'To be or not to be' of Fantastic one" arguing the possible philosophical points of view of the program and the appreciation made by the pupils, with seven participation.
"In the cultural week, what was the room that I liked most?"It was the Second newsgroup that it boarded the appreciation by the pupils for the works accomplished in the Cultural Week of the School, in the year of 2005, with 11 participations.
"For you, a good teacher is..." boarded in the Teachers' Day in the year of 2005, raising front to the pupils of the TelEduc, the criteria and the qualities of a good teacher, with ten participations.
"24-11-05 -4º International Day of the Philosophy" boarding the importance of this day and of the Philosophy, collecting suggestions for the commemoration of the date, with 5 pupils participated.
"Philosophy at Dom Jose?Is it important ?" about the retaked one of the Philosophy while it disciplines in High School of the public net of Sao Paulo, with nine participation.
"Is myth different of Hero?" boarding the differences between the mythical and heroic, with 14 participations, retaking the concepts assimilated in 2ª séries of High School, with the discussion about human knowledge."Are all Politicians ethical?" arguing the relation between Ethics and Politics, with 15 participation, retaking the concepts assimilated in 3ªs séries of High School, demonstrating the entailing between these two concepts."Questions to be proposed on the day of the qualification" elaborated by the pupils of the VEL who had participated of the qualification about the TelEduc environment, in the CCUEC of UNICAMP, under orientation of the teacher Edilene Ropoli, who verbally answered some questions during the qualification, with 71 participations (Photograph 1) Photograph 1. Teacher Edilene Ropoli answers some questions proposed in the "Discussion Forums" "Questions to be proposed on the day of qualification" (Credit: Gentil Gonçales Filho).
"Evaluation of the qualification accomplished at UNICAMP" pointing at the positive and limited aspects of the qualification accomplished for ou by the team of EAD in the CCUEC of UNICAMP, on May 22, 2006, with 35 participations."What is your opinion about the debates accomplished on April 23, 2006?" boarding the respective consideration of the pupils about performances of the tool Directed Chat, with qualification of the pupils for discuss of the subjects about Cosmology and Cosmogony for the first series, Myths for the second series and Politics for the third series, with 35 participations.
"Activity I", "Activity II", "Activity III" and "Activity IV" are four newsgroups boarding the results of the readings and interpretations of texts and music of "philosophical way, texts of different structures and registers" [10], accomplished in groups, with pay-define groups, with 28 participations in the first forum, 30 in the second, 34 in the third and 31 in fourth and last forum.
"Do you have doubts about Philosophy?" arguing the main doubts of the pupils in this discipline, with 66 participations.
"Meaningless Things or Philosophical Messages?"enunciating philosophical phrases that the pupils had assimilated during the readings and researched out of the classroom and the VEL, with 78 participations.
"UPA -UNICAMP of open doors.What do you make to enter in the UNICAMP?" arguing the visit accomplished (??) by the pupils of the VEL in 2006 event UPA, with 91 participations.
"Is the TelEduc a pedagogical instrument?" boarding approaching ou discussing the potentialities and limitations of the VEL based on the reading of the article written by Arnaud Soares: "The revolution (quiet) of the Internet in the classrooms" in Magazine SEEDNET [11], with 64 participations.
"Must ORKUT and YOUTUBE be prosecuted for about the bad use of the resources of the ICTs?What do you think?" arguing the positive and negative aspects of the use of technologies for the promotion human, with 98 participations.
"Can we make schools a better place to be in?" arguing the positive and negative aspects of the pertaining to school life, with presentation of suggestions for the improvement of management and pedagogical questions about the school, with 138 participations.
"The reopening of the Pau-Preto Casarão carried out by the Pro-Memory Foundation of Indaiatuba, boarding/approaching the aspects of the local culture and the necessity of preservation of the history of Indaiatuba, with 52 participations.
"What do you expect from the discipline Philosophy in 2007?" demonstrating the expectations of the pupils of the TelEduc about the beginning of the school year 2007 and the objectives to be reached within this year, with 167 participations."Laptop of low cost" arguing the project of insertion of the Laptop of low cost in the schools of the public net of Brazil, as an educational technology, with 82 participations.
"Doubts of the 1st bimester of 2007" boarding/approaching the main doubts of the pupils front to the topics studied in 1st bimester of 2007, with 46 participations.
The tool "Chat" has the report of 11 discussions (synchronous) accomplished in the VEL, namely: "Should Sociology be included in the Curriculum Grid of High School?" approaching the retaken one of them you discipline of Human Sciences beings in Sao Paulo High School, with four participants.
"Should the studies about `God' be included in the curriculum grid?" approaching the importance of the study of God and its manifestations in the Philosophy, in especial for philosophical discipline Teodiceia, with five participants.
"Are jazz, rock, pagode, graffiti arts?" approaching the discussion about Beauty and the characteristics of the works of art, with four participants.
"Is Science without conscience the death of the soul?What is the role of science in our society?"dealing with the beddings of Science and the positive and negative aspects in the use of such knowledge in real life, with five participants.
"Revision for the Simulated of Philosophy" discussing the main doubts of the disciplines for preparation and accomplishment of the tests of school simulated, with three participants.
"Discuss about the Exercises of Philosophy and preparation for the tests of Philosophy accomplished in November of 2005", moments of discussion and preparation for the tests of Philosophy of the last bimester, with three participants.
"Fourth International Day of the Philosophy" commemorating and reflecting about the role of Philosophy in our Society, with five participants.
"Debate about Cosmogony and Cosmology for pupils of the first year" dealing with the study and the sprouting of the universe, with three participants.
"Debate about Myths" for pupils of second year and "Debate about Politics" for pupils of the third year" reflecting about the questions about knowledge and the human dimension of the Politics, with 38 participants."Evaluation of the first bimester of 2007" an opportunity to think about the tasks and objectives accomplished during the first bimester of 2007, with six participants.
The Tool "Mail" is used by all the participants of the TelEduc, based on the only rule: don't direct messages that not related to the development of the Workshop.
The Tool "Groups" presents the pupils divided respectively into their classrooms, in a total of 15 groups.
In the Tool "Profile" we can find information of the 108 pupils, some guests and visitors and the two preceptors and the coordinator, following the orientation of identification with photo and their expectations about the discipline, the use of the environment and whether the pupil appreciates the world of culture, with readings, projection of DVDs, strolls and other kinds of entertainment.
The tool "Diary "can be shared or not, for the report of the reflections of the pupils about their development in the use of the TelEduc, highlighting their potentialities and limitations.
In the tool "Portfolio" we can find the works accomplished in groups or individually by pupils for the analysis of the preceptors and comments of all the pupils, shared or not with the participants.
The Tool "Access" demonstrates individual performance of the participants and the groups of the entrances in the environment and the diverse tools of the TelEduc, (maximum number: 9710).See table  The tool "Intermap" presents the interaction level among the participants in the use of the tools' TelEduc through polar or simple graphs and tables.In the 1st bimester of 2005, the pupils answered one survey about a possible use of the surrounding room of computer science, after the reflection of the EAD's text [12].The results showed the good acceptance of such technology on the part of the pupils, follow resulted of tables.
The use of VEL TelEduc, as a learning tool, are preceded by a research about the use of the ICTs with the pupils.In the first bimester of 2005, 373 pupils answered a research with five questions, about a possible use of a Surrounding Room of Computer Science (SRCS), with computing recourses based on EAD's text of CCUEC da UNICAMP [12].The questions were the following: Question 1: "Do you like to participate of Philosophy class ?";Question 2: "Do you consider the use of multimedia resource (computer, Television and plate of connection) in the class of Philosophy more interesting than witness class of teacher?"; "Question 3: "Comparing the old Philosophy class, that didn't use the resources of the computer science room (images, Internet) was its level of understanding in discipline Philosophy?"; Question 4: "Would you like to return to the old model of witness class of Philosophy?" and Question 5: "Exactly You can't use the computers (they are not in net) without possessing conditional air, with high temperatures, without chairs and wallets for the correct position, its level of assimilation in the Philosophy class in the computer science room is".The results showed the good acceptance of the use of ICTs as a learning recourse for future Philosophy class according to the results of table The results of the tests made by pupils in discipline Philosophy, with the use of the VEL, were measured and compared before and after the use of TelEduc in the school year of 2005, with 79 inscripted for the Workshop and an increase in the performance (using the VEL), according to Graphs 1 and 2: In October of 2006, after more than one year of use of VEL, 55 pupils answered a survey intitled "Pupil on-line -learning and participating in the TelEduc Environment", with the following questions: "For you, what is the element or tool that enhances learning and participation in the virtual environment of learning "?", having as a result the following hypothesis : Hypothesis 1: "To attend the classes in "Support Material" pupils should not worry about the comments; Hypothesis 2: "To analyze, to reflect, and to answer the proposed questions in Discussion Forums raising the power of argument telling the different positions of other people"; Hypothesis 3: To post messages to the Coordinator, Preceptors and friends through the tool "Mail"; Hypothesis 4: "To research the recommended topics listed in the tools "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Readings", making self-learning easier and providing an environment for pupils to read the classic works of Philosophy "; Hypothesis 5: "Participations in the tool "Chat" raising the knowledge about specific topics linked to Philosophy"; Hypothesis 6: "To check my learning about the proposed topics through the tool "Multiple Choose Questions"; and Hypothesis In December of 2006, one survey intitled "Evaluation of Philosophy discipline in the school year of 2006, using the TelEduc", was carried out, as follows: "Analyzing your performance during the school year of 2006 in Philosophy discipline, using this VEL, choose up to 3 arternatives: What are the most important aspects that you observe in your learning for the comprehension and learning of Philosophy topics" with the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: "Improvement of your reading, discussion and analyses of problems"; Hypothesis 2: "You felt like learning using other technologies beyond the classroom (I looked for other forms of long-distance Education)"; Hypothesis 3: "Improvement of your capacity to meet dead-lines"; Hypothesis 4: "Improvement of your participation in the proposals activities"; Hypothesis 5: "You used your creativity in the accomplishment of the proposed activities and in the proposition of new activities"; Hypothesis 6: "You tried to correct your writing and to adapt yourself to the style of philosophical and scientific texts of the course"; Hypothesis 7: "Improvement of your relationship with the group of pupils of the TelEduc"; Hypothesis 8: "improvement of your capacity to use and to adequate the evaluation system improving your own learning process; Hypothesis 9: "Improvement of the quality of your questions and given answers and of your adequacy to the presented proposals, focusing on the subject; Hypothesis 10: "Improvement of the amount and quality of interaction with the group and the teacher (despite of being geographically distant, we all had the opportunity to interact appropriately"); and Hypothesis 11 "I didn't get to interact with the virtual classmates and to learn Philosophy in this Total VEL".See table table  Final remarks: It can be concluded through experience that the use of the environment of TelEduc among the pupils of Philosophy discipline has been very efficient for the learning process.The comprehension of the topics and the abilities developed have helped the pupils to reach the goal of High School in this discipline.

1 .Graph 2 .
incripted in TelEduc comparing ones the mentions of Second semester in 2005 (with the use of Tel Educ), with the mentions obtived of First semester of 2005 (without the use of TelEduc) Performance of pupils in 2005 in VEL Percentage of performance of the mentions of pupils incripted in TelEduc 2005 Percentage of performance of the mentions of pupils in VEL in 2005 .

Table 1 .
1: Number of Access in the tool of VEL TelEduc Workshop of Philosophy at Dom Jose from July 11, 2 005 to May 04, 2007

Table 2 .
Results of research accomplished among the pupils of discipline Philosophy in the first semester of 2005 about the possible use of ICTs in SRCS and presented in "V Learning Workshop of Philosophy in the High School" intitled "The use of multimedia recourses in Philosophy Class" in March 30, 2005, in Center of Human Science of Pontiff University Catholic of Campinas (PUC-CAMPINAS).

Table 3 .
7: "I didn't get to interact with the friends (virtual classmates) and to learn Philosophy in this Total VEL", demonstrating what abilities and competences were acquired with the use of VEL: Results of survey "Pupil on-line -learning and participating in TelEduc Environment" accomplished in the VEL from October 09, 2006 to October 16, 2006.

Table 4 :
4: Aspects the most important for the learning, understanding and learning of topics philosophycal with the tool TelEduc accomplished in VEL since December 06, 2006 to December 12, 2006.