Pandemic and remote education: Higher education students’ perceptions in Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: This research project aims to analyze the higher education students’ perceptions on their remote education experiences. Digital technologies are one of this century revolutions, acting as a partner of the human being and arising the post-human horizon.
Methodology: We applied a self-reported questionnaire with closed and open questions to convenience samples composed of students in a private and a public university in Brazil and a public university in Mexico, disaggregating education students in the first one. Classes were selected randomly.
Results: This pandemic involved a crises complex interfering in students’ lives, i.e., sanitary, of work, economic and social. Remote education faced the digital gap in relation to connections, equipment and digital capital, producing regressive effects to the relatively less privileged students. According to the respondents’ perspective, remote education is less advantageous than on campus.
Discussion: A serious question, though, is the ethics of technological development, much faster than philosophical reflections about its ends and goals, as well as the regulation of its uses. This fastness is a result of the current market paradigm, under which aegis technologies develop, maximizing productivity and profits.