Structures and conjunctures of digital culture and education: challenges, opportunities and the effects of technologies on contemporary education for digital natives and immigrants

Abstract

The digital revolution has profoundly transformed social, cultural and educational practices, imposing new paradigms for the contemporary school. Digital technologies not only redefine teaching methods, but also reorganize relationships, expectations, and ways of producing knowledge, requiring critical reflection on their role in the training process.
For this reason, this article aims to analyze digital culture in education, investigating its challenges, opportunities and implications for digital natives and immigrants. The discussion seeks to understand how technologies, while expanding pedagogical possibilities, also reveal structural inequalities. The research was conducted through a bibliographic survey in academic bases, including publications between 2019 and 2024, in addition to reference classics. Studies that deal with technological integration, active methodologies and sociocultural inclusion were included, with emphasis on authors such as Freire, Kuhn, Masetto, Prensky and Barreto. The results showed that technological insertion enhances the personalization of teaching, student engagement and collaboration, but finds barriers in precarious infrastructure, digital inequality and teacher resistance. Experiences such as flipped classrooms and gamification have shown significant gains, although conditioned to continuing education and institutional support. It is concluded that digital culture can be a strategic ally of education, as long as it is articulated with robust public policies, investments in training and solid pedagogical principles. The analysis showed that the objectives were met, reinforcing the need to balance tradition and innovation to ensure inclusion, autonomy and social justice in the school environment.