From digital to Academic Literacy: Interactional Dynamic and Writing Practices on Facebook

Abstract

This paper discusses some of the results obtained in an educational project carried out in a Portuguese undergraduate course at Universidade Federal do Pará. We analyzed the interactional dynamic experienced by students in Facebook when it is used as a teaching platform, as well as the use of writing in these interactions. We understand that the use of digital literacy tools can greatly contribute to the training of future Portuguese language teachers, considering that such tools have directly influenced language practices. Integral formation of our students is one of our main objectives, so we intent not just preparing them for academic practice, but also for future teaching practice in a context which technology and digital tools will be increasingly present. Thus, we aim at contributing to the expansion of digital and academic literacy of our students. Blended Learning, a mix of face-to-face and on line teaching was the methodology used in the project. That way, we believe that learning could become a more continuous process. Our research is theoretically founded on the Studies about Literacy, as Martin (2008), Street (2014) and Lankshear and Knobel (2008) and by Levy (2010) Cyberculture. This ethnographic research analyses the, literacy in context, understood as social practice.