- Preface
- I. A new era
- • Globalization, the first sign of change
- • English - the new planetary language
- • A change in the scale of education
- II. Education and its context
- • Education and business
- • Education and the state
- III. The digital habit
- • The new digital culture
- • Digital projects
- • Time for assimilation
- IV. The extended school
- • Education at a critical moment
- • A definition of the extended school
- • Yesterday: concentrated knowledge
- • Today: knowledge disseminated
- • Tomorrow: knowledge connected
- V. New tools and old
- • Chalk and blackboard
- • The spinning globe
- • Microscopic life
- • Desk and work
- • The computer garden
- • Slides and liquid Crystal
- • Projectors and projections
- • Dry and digital copies
- VI. Digital transition
- • Continuing education
- • Cultural exchange
- • The mental switch
- • Critical thought
- • Internal communication
- • Educational frontier posts
- • Technological updating
- • Creativity and deregulation
- VII. Means and ends
- • Values for today and for always
- • Technocentrality and consumerism
- • Software in the public domain
- VIII. The digital library
- • Atoms versus bits
- • The dual book
- • Digital quality
- • Reading and writing
- • Text and hypertext
- • Consult and navigate
- IX. The home computer
- • A new piece of furniture or a new instrument?
- • Playthings and electronic toys
- • Robots for assembly
- • The silent printer
- • The community network
- X. New instruments of thought
- • Word processors, a new way of writing
- • A friendly mouse
- • More portable learning
- • Designing with computers
- • The golden link in communications: the modem
- • Electronic mail always arrives at its destination
- • Fax, a threatened species
- • WWW: three magic letters
- • Reliable and accessible data bases
- • Tables, abacus and spreadsheet
- • The Scanner, a bridge between two worlds
- • New interfaces and old keyboards
- • Presentation aids
- • So-called multimedia
- • Digital cameras without film
- • Digital videos in schools
- • Music for all
- XI. Presence and remote presence
- • Features of distance education
- • The three generations
- • Synchronous and asynchronous moments
- • Spaces for meeting
- • Classrooms open to the world
- • The advantages
- • New educational niches
- • A new type of teacher and student
- XII. Talents and handicaps
- • The right to communication
- • The obstacle of the keyboard
- • The obstacle of the screen
- • The expression of individual talent
- Conclusions
X. NEW INSTRUMENTS OF THOUGHT
The Scanner, a bridge between two worlds
This admirable tool facilitates the transition from the analog to the digital world. We will always have physical objects that we would like to digitize, transform, reproduce or transport over networks: So far this can only be done with two-dimensional objects (perhaps some time in the future it will be possible with digitized physical objects). Scanners are very popular with graphic designers, and become simpler almost daily. They will surely be indispensable in digital schools, where they are already replacing photocopiers. They come in various forms:
Desktop scanners are the traditional format, looking like thin photocopiers, and enable the transfer of any two-dimensional object (usually printed on paper) to a computer or a screen. These are the most accurate, largest capacity and most commonly used machines by professionals in graphic design.
Hand-held scanners are of two types, those which can sweep the width of a page and others (the size of a pencil) which scan by line of text (as if they were highlighting).
Automatic scanners have a slit for the insertion of the page or leaflet to be digitized, which is immediately reproduced on our computer screens. These scanners are permanently connected to the computer and are activated automatically by means of the insertion of a sheet and are ideal for loading information on a computer, creating a data or document base quickly and easily. They also make it possible to radiate this information immediately over the network.
These three types of scanner are well complemented by optical character recognition systems that read scanned text on a letter-by-letter basis so it can be edited on any word processor. All these elements in their various forms, qualities and uses are fundamental to digital education, in particular during this period of transition when we are still overwhelmed by paper. It would be best however to abandon paper altogether if at all possible (saving trees).
