Mobile technologies in school: mapping the movements of school management

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of school management in the reconfiguration of its practices when facing a process of inserting mobile technologies. The goal is to understand how school managers move in order to promote the digital inclusion of these technologies in teaching practices. Mapping was chosen as methodology, guided by the clue of attention and its four varieties: tracking, touching, perching, and attentive recognition. Data production was carried out from written records during a research with school managers at a school that took part in the second phase of the pilot project UCA (one laptop per child, from the acronym in Portuguese). That data is discussed in four parts. The first one deals with expectations and reaction to the arrival of laptops. The second one discusses people management. The third one analyzes the pedagogical management. And the fourth one presents new configurations of teaching practices. The research stands out for its attentive look at and sensitive listening to the subjects that compose the school management, who revealed a constant ongoing process (devenir) towards opening new possibilities from the reconfigurations presented with the insertion of mobile technologies in school.