- 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
Synchronous and asynchronous moments
We must differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous moments in distance learning. Asynchronously, teachers can improve and extend dialog, queries and critical comments with their students using electronic mail at any time of the day or night, without invading the privacy or the schedule of their students. Synchronously, videoconferencing facilities for small groups can be kept permanently open thanks to the flat rate structure. In these cases courses and seminars take place naturally, without being considered as exceptional, and meetings can be held at given hours of the day or night at a rate that can be more flexible than is habitual in the case of traditional education. Such "virtual" meeting places may also be organized in future from homes themselves thanks to new digital telephone lines and cable connections for personal videoconferencing.
Traditional education has always had a component that does not demand physical presence. Teachers require homework, students must hand in written tests, exchanges of documents, photocopies, books, sound and video recordings take place extending the actual physical encounters. However, such asynchronous events are limited by the material support for the ideas (paper, cassettes, etc.) which are subject to deterioration, to loss and which are often costly. Books, for example, go out of circulation, are not reprinted, photocopies become erased over time, books have to be withdrawn and returned personally from libraries.
On the other hand on a digital campus ideas can be maintained in the network indefinitely at minimal cost, books are never out of print and can be consulted as often as necessary, etc. Digital advantages are clear both regarding conservation and transportation. The digitizing of text and images is becoming daily more accessible. CD-ROMS ensure the conservation of vast quantities of information at low cost, and can be consulted from remote locations if necessary. Courses or seminars via videoconferences are recorded digitally, etc. The nervous system of distance education is the digital network that will link all its components by electronic mail and videoconferencing.
