This text describes the results of a synthesis study developed during the period between 2004 and 2008, based on 13 academic and professional Master dissertations, with the objective of discussing the virtual classroom. More precisely, the text aims at outlining the paradigm crisis around the rupture between the presence classroom and the virtual classroom, in view of the emergence of the information society, through empirical data gathered by the 13 Master students that took part in this longitudinal study sponsored by CNPq, FAPDF, and FENADESP. In its first part, there is a general introduction to the theme and to the research problem that gave origin to the meta-analytic or synthesis study described here, which is defined by four questions: 1) what are the new formats for the virtual classroom?; 2) what pedagogical strategies are more adequate to guide the teaching work in the virtual classroom?; 3) what innovative didactic materials are consistent with the teaching work in the virtual classroom?; 4) what new teacher roles emerge in the context of the virtual classroom? There follows a succinct description of the methodological approach adopted to give support to our investigation effort in search of answers to the questions posed above. The third part of the article consists of an equally brief theoretical picture of the concept of virtual classroom. The next section brings a discussion of each of those issues in the light of the results achieved in the 13 Master dissertations analyzed. Lastly, conclusions are put forward, which point out and discuss some of the defining elements of the virtual classroom that give shape to the paradigm crisis alluded to here.
Virtual classroom; New information technologies; Communication and expression; School; Moodle