Use of technological resources by early childhood education teachers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Purpose: to investigate the use of technology by early childhood education teachers in teaching before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting how they faced the challenges of remote classes. Methods: a primary, observational, and cross-sectional study with convenience sampling and descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. 794 teachers from public and private schools answered a questionnaire about the situations experienced before and during the pandemic. The McNemar and Wilcoxon tests were used, and the level of statistical significance considered was less than 5% (p<0.05). Results: most of the responses were from public school teachers. The use of non-tangible technological resources was not part of the participants' routine, and 83.2% had difficulty using them during the pandemic. 91.9% had difficulty monitoring their children's progress, virtually, and dealing with different family contexts. Conclusion: the social isolation imposed by the pandemic led to the use of non-tangible technologies through resources that were not developed for educational purposes. The lack of equipment in the home environment and the lack of knowledge about the use of technological resources were the most decisive difficulties. Although most schools and city governments made platforms and programs available for classes, few had the necessary training. Monitoring children's progress virtually was challenging, as was dealing with the activities proposed for home, considering the different family contexts.