- 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
XI. PRESENCE AND REMOTE PRESENCE
The three generations
It is possible to talk of three generations of distance learning technology. The first generation involved printed material: the dispatch of texts and manuals by mail, and the exchange of documents. The second generation was analog: the sending of videos, radio programs, open TV, cable TV. The third generation (digital) involves videoconferences + networks (Intranet + Internet). In reality the most common form of distance education at present is a mix of ingredients of all three generations. In future it will be entirely digital.
These different modalities have spread to the most varied segments of the population and mainly cover secondary, technical and tertiary study levels. For this reason digital tele-education will impose new learning and teaching habits that will complement face-to-face learning, stimulating the development of new methods for teaching and learning at all levels.
These novel digital habits are based on a drastic reformulating of standard systems. Degree and other courses are shortening. Modern society is in a state of continuous transformation, knowledge is rapidly renewed and students on lengthy courses run the risk of learning many useless things that will inexorably be superseded by events. Instead of insisting on long and onerous preparation concentrated when students are young, modern society requires educators to make an effort of imagination and courage to implement a regime that is extended over time and offers both students and teachers better opportunities for constant recycling of knowledge over their whole life.
It is estimated that in many classroom lessons a large percentage of time is lost in the oral or written transmission of information that could be provided remotely or digitally. It is highly wasteful to have to copy what the teacher has written on the blackboard when the same text could have been sent earlier over the net to each student's PC. This absurd situation is very common and clearly reveals the instrumental and mental limitations of classroom learning. The overhead projector is a step in the right direction but it also tends to become a static blackboard substitute. On the other hand the regular use of digital presentation aids opens the door to greater interactivity by converting the simple ordering of images into an attractive multimedia system.
We would like to emphasize the decisive value of personal exchanges between student and teacher. Contrary to belief, distance learning enhances rather than eliminates this aspect. It is certainly the basis of the entire educational processes. Using digital technology teachers come closer to their students than they would in the classroom, where they are seen at a distance. There is considerable role confusion in this regard. Classroom education claims such interaction as its exclusive right, but as we will see it does not always fulfill its theoretical premises. Above all, the need to provide education to a constantly growing number of people of all ages and occupations makes individual follow-up of a tutorial nature daily more difficult. Many students will complete their university courses without ever having had genuine contact with their professors or a leading researcher. Nor is it easy to carefully evaluate and examine such an avalanche of candidates at key moments during the year.
Distance education on the other hand permits permanent evaluation of the student, constantly on line with the teacher, reducing the surprises provided by end-of-term exams. In short, distance learning reinforces interaction between teachers and students, instead of reducing or eliminating it, as might be thought. Furthermore, when teachers combine their remote presence with their physical presence in tutorials they can discover a better balance, reduce the redundancy of courses, take better advantage of face-to-face dialog, maximize the use of available resources, reduce unnecessary and frustrating transfers. However, this path to integration is not easy, and demands a permanent updating of systems (networks, videoconferences) and teacher training in line with the digital times.
