Empresa HD, aluno monitor: A microsoft e a construção da crença nas tecnologias

Abstract

There is a consensus that digital technologies are able to positively change the quality of education. Through the articulation of multiple social fields interested in the relationship between education and technologies, a symbolic universe of (usually positive) values related to digital devices is converted into a repertoire which enshrines this consensus and turns it into a kind of myth, a belief. This myth is spread over several social spaces and it shapes a favorable environment for technologies, which involves the field of education (in an interrelation with other social fields) and puts pressure on schools for modernization through the adoption of technologies. This article aims to reflect on the contribution of the corporate field for the shaping of this favorable environment for modernization, based on the analysis of the repertoire created and disseminated by Microsoft regarding the use of technologies in education. This repertoire is registered in corporate reports, which have been analyzed in order to understand how they represent (1) the impact of technologies on education; the way education embraces (2) technological trends; and (3) the effects and potential of technological languages in education spaces. It is understood that the company intends to have an all-encompassing action towards education, prescribing the use of technologies in institutional material, focusing on the media and universities, and working in partnership with the government for the adoption of their equipment, products and software. Based on institutional reports, we examine the symbolic material produced by Microsoft, with comprises and strengthens a network in favor of technologies, also formed by other social fields interested in modernizing education, such as the government, the media and universities.