The Usability of Digital Technological Resources: the Perspective of a University Extension Course Linked to Initial Training

Abstract

 This article is guided by two main objectives: the description of the functionality of the technological resources proposed in an extension course in the Distance Education modality with a group of Mathematics undergraduate students from private and public institutions in the State of Rio de Janeiro and in the reflection of the interactivity between these students and the technologies used. To do so, we will contribute to the theoretical assumptions that bring their discussions about the concepts of initial training of Mathematics teachers and their training practices in extension, in order to collaborate in the consolidation of the debate on the effect of a complementary training parallel to the graduation period. We will also reflect on the discussion promoted by the need to support digital technologies (DT) in the execution of extension courses, which are increasingly constituted in digital media. In order to respond to this investigation, we propose to describe how the operation of such technological resources supported the extension course, in particular the usability of the GeoGebra platform as a tool capable of enhancing geometric concepts essential to the initial training of Mathematics undergraduates. Thus, the research from which this article originated has its qualitative nature immersed in an explanatory approach. We add that this type of approach investigates something new from the perspective of articulating ideas and seeks to understand the causes and effects of a given phenomenon. As results, we point to the (re)signification of some fundamental concepts of geometries (flat and spatial), after the participation of the extension course participants.

Keywords: Usability. Teacher training. Digital technologies. Mathematics teaching.