Distance Learning and Brazilian Higher Educational System

The needs of our new society organization are leading to new paradigms and, therefore to a new educational model. This new model of education seeks to give more value to education and less focus on job. This kind of social structure, also known as Information Society or Web Society differs itself from the social structure of Industrial Age. In this last one, all pedagogical approach was focus on technical development, where the students were prepared to play specific roles on their jobs, accumulate knowledge, values and rules that didn´t have much relation to their ways of living. This type of educational system actually turns the whole process of education into a frustrated process and in a very poor stimulating environment. Talking about the web society, the new pedagogical approaches are facing towards cognitive acquisition process, where the students are protagonists of their learning process and the teacher plays an important role as mediator through this process of learning. The principles of significant learning try to establish a relationship between relevant informations and pre-existing concepts of knowledge that have influence on learning and on the meaning given to these new acquirements. Therefore, to this new educational paradigm, knowledge represent one´s action on its reality as a protagonist of its on learning process and also acting on a cooperative manner to its peers. This new educational model have the following characteristics: • Skills development • Perception that everyone has its own rhythm to learn • Building of Learning Communities • Network. With the arising of distance education, the need of deep educational changes became more evident. As BEHAR et al., 2007 stated, “It is in this environment that distance learning helps to solve Brazilian higher educational problems and to find ways for digital inclusion. Thereby, this type of learning based on communication and technology have important tools that are able to change Brazilian educational system. It is believed that, without extensive use of technology, Brazilian Universities will not have conditions to reach the top of higher education. BEHAR, P. A; PASSERINO, L; BERNARDI, M. Modelos Pedagógicos para Educação a Distância: pressupostos teóricos para a construção de objetos de aprendizagem. Revista Renote, v. 3, n. 2, dez. 2007.