- 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
XII. TALENTS AND HANDICAPS
The expression of individual talent
Our analysis of the advantages of digitization in assisting the disabled only places in evidence new ways of discovering individual talents. Sometimes these talents are exceptional and precocious. There is much discussion in education circles of the advantages and disadvantages of "special" teaching for the best equipped students. Furthermore the early detection of exceptional talent forms part of some school programs. We have however had the opportunity to witness displays of exceptional talent even before any formal schooling, particularly in the areas of written language, drawing and math when the adequate computer tools are available. As such technologies become more widespread we will see an increase in the number of exceptional students and a consequent reduction in the need to provide them with any special treatment. The entire educational community will gradually reach higher levels of intellectual performance in the digital era.
In reality, all children benefit greatly from the use of new tools, the problem lies in ensuring their correct use. This book does not provide any key to guaranteed results, and we have taken care to insist on the lengthy period of assimilation required by the educational community to acquire genuine digital habits. However, we can guarantee that when we set out along this road in the proper manner we will encounter many unsuspected talents in both students and teachers. We are firm believers in the potential hidden within us all, and we have on innumerable occasions experienced to what extent such a wealth of capabilities can be expressed with the formidable tools now available.
