Teachers's media literacy and emergency remote teaching in the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

We present the results of a research carried out in 2020 that, using an online questionnaire, sought to identify the perception of elementary and high school teachers who were performing emergency remote teaching about their media literacy skills. The data obtained in the questionnaire were subjected to descriptive analyzes and bivariate analyzes, through the Chi-Square Test, in order to identify possible associations between different variables. Among the main results, we highlight the high perception of media literacy skills by teachers, as well as the use of these skills in emergency remote education. The tests indicated an association between the custom of proposing media literacy practices at school before the pandemic and a greater perception and use of these skills by teachers in remote education. A low perception of competence was also found among state school teachers to understand the use that large platforms make of their data, indicating that they may be vulnerable to the large private groups that manage these platforms and also little prepared to guide your students on the topic. We reaffirm the need for a critical approach to media literacy, focusing not only on knowledge about the use of user data, but also on the functioning of algorithms, which is essential for understanding how the so-called digital capitalism operates and for the exercise of social practices of use of media, especially at a time when we become dependent on technologies for study, work and social relationships due to the physical distance imposed by the pandemic.