- 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
Digital cameras without film
These cameras allow us to capture images in static or moving form. The great technological revolution represented by digital cameras lies in the fact that a vast number of images can be gathered and transferred to a computer automatically, without any need to invest in traditional light-sensitive film and complicated chemical development processes. The entire procedure is digital, nothing is lost or deteriorated over time. Everything is stored in the memory of the computer and can be printed on paper. Our experience at school has been very positive in this regard, as the school-children take digital cameras on excursions and transfer images to their computers to illustrate their charming private correspondence or their research projects, the whole process seeming somewhat magic.
Digital video cameras are still very new to the market for their educational impact to be evaluated. They will give rise to new forms of art, and will enable amateurs to achieve results that are today restricted to professionals. Digital video cameras avoid the need for bothersome traditional analog "editing islands", reducing the vast amount of time needed for compiling and simplifying the combining of audio and video. Digital video will shortly become part of basic digital education. Digital video projectors in many shapes and qualities will ensure that images from computers or video recorders will be able to be admired on large screens. These are already standard in group presentations or videoconferencing links. We will soon have videos on Internet traveling the world in condensed form, a one-hour video transmitted in a second, for example. Round the world in just a second.
