O enfrentamento da desinformação no ambiente escolar: o letramento e a alfabetização digitais como escudos de proteção no âmbito do ensino médio

Abstract

Over the years, with the explosion of technologies and unrestricted access to the internet, the dissemination of information has become faster and more comprehensive. However, this insertion in digital environments often gives users the false feeling of being emitters and propagators of absolute truths, without necessarily exercising a critical analysis of the veracity of the shared content. Many people start to consume and disseminate information that only reinforces their individual beliefs and values, without a reflective and critical look. As Buckingham (2007) and Santaella (2018) point out, digital culture has transformed the way we interact with knowledge, requiring new mechanisms of critical reading to deal with information overload and the spread of fake news. This reality inevitably affects the school environment, especially high school, a stage in which young people face challenges related to academic, social and professional transition. Previously seen as facilitators of interaction and learning, digital spaces have also come to be perceived as potential threats to school and social coexistence, mainly due to the dissemination of misinformation, which can generate conflicts and affect students' cognitive and critical development. In this sense, the qualitative-interpretative research was based on the theoretical contribution of authors such as Freire (1987), who emphasized reading the world as an emancipatory practice, and Coscarelli and Ribeiro (2005), who, when addressing the new demands of digital reading, reinforce the need for strategies that enable students to understand and question the information they consume, developing a critical stance towards the digital universe. Thus, the present study proposed a reflection on the importance of digital literacy in high school as an essential tool to combat misinformation and strengthen the formation of critical readers in the contemporary scenario, firstly by envisioning the factors that enhance misinformation, as well as give rise to Post-Truth or absolute Truth and the consequences arising from it. Finally, the study made it possible, as shown by Do Vale and Striquer (2014) and Cruz (2007), that the change in paradigms as well as the way of teaching and educating in the New Digital Era, must start with the validation of Digital Literacy and Education as shields to combat misinformation, specifically aimed at High School.