Digital inclusion in psychological suffering

a Freirean reflection about mediation in the project “I wanna join the Net”

Abstract

Popular education was built as a critical and counter-hegemonic resistance movement. The second half of the twentieth century witnessed the mainstreaming of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) spread through the internet. This paper presents the experience of popular education and digital inclusion through the “I want to enter the Net” project, developed by ten residents of low-income communities living in psychological distress. Based on Paulo Freire’s theoretical assumptions, this work analyzes the mediator’s role in the developed pedagogical processes. In social relationships, the methods and theoretical assumptions adopted were inspired by the “Translation of Knowledge” and efficiently promoted the participants’ leadership and reduced their invisibility. The project developed students’ skills and abilities in ICT management, resulting in creating the blog Libertando a Mente (Freeing the Mind). The experience reveals that mediation based on educational praxis from the freirean perspective was conducted through the exchange of knowledge and the appreciation of different types of knowledge. Thus, we can conclude that the methods employed fostered the information democratization processes and promoted the leadership of users in line with the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform guidelines.