THE USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN BRAZILIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

The research on the use of digital technologies in countries peripheral to the universal centers of capital has received strong investments from national and international authors, who seek to respond to the frequent emergent demands of the inclusive society. With the intention of contributing to this effort, we seek to understand the impacts of the use of digital techniques in Brazilian higher education, assuming the hypothesis that this use helps the education of students who could not or would have more difficulties in attending university in the face-to-face modality, occurring, as a consequence, the significant increase of virtual courses offered in the distance learning modality. Two objectives drive this reflection: (i) verify the existing types of communication and digital technologies; (ii) describe the choice and validity of these types in the national academic reality. As a theoretical framework, the studies on digital communication and digital technologies by Levy (2010), Thompson (1998) and Coelho, Costa and Mattar (2018) are included. together with broader concepts on the meaning of networks in the communication and mass media society developed by Castelis (1999) and Simondon (2020). The application of technologies to higher education is based on the interpretations of Cambi (1999) and Azevedo (2020). The methodological mode is interdisciplinary, uniting concepts of communication and of Pedagogy as the necessary focus to understand the changes in educational practices in the Brazilian educational system. The results achieved confirm that the use of technological resources in education contributes significantly to the improvement of teaching/learning and the elevation of the national HDI (Human Development Indexes).