"FRUSTRATING AND EXCITING": IDENTITY, COMPUTATIONAL THINKING, AND THE TEACHER IN CONTINUING EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

Technologies transformed the way of producing and acquiring knowledge. The pandemic proved that now they ought to be a part of the classroom. However, it is still needed that the teacher experiences using such technologies to, then, work with them. Starting from the notion that it is necessary to develop new abilities in order to be digitally literate (KARCHMER-KLEIN; SHINAS, 2012), and considering that identities are shaped by experience (IVANIC, 1998), this paper aims to understand how five students of a Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics, already experienced teachers, while writing, build their identities and reflect upon technology’s relation with the school. Therefore, it was analyzed the journals produced during a class focused on digital literacy, in which the students had to read the theory and experiment with a digital tool. It is concluded that curiosity is one of the key elements to developing digital literacy and computational thinking, and that it is through attempting that the educator improves their knowledge and acquires confidence to incorporate new digital tools in the classroom.

Keywords:
continuing education; digital literacy; computational thinking