- 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
IV. THE EXTENDED SCHOOL
Education at a critical moment
Education at the end of this century is living a "crucial moment" as Jacques Maritain said at the end of the Second World War. The great problem, then as now, was to rebuild civilized and democratic life through education after the fall of great totalitarian empires. The two great defeated nations of yesteryear, Germany and Japan are today two world economic, scientific, technological and cultural powers. In contrast, a victorious nation such as the former Soviet Union has entered into a process of implosion and disintegration. The future of China is unknown, but if it moves towards an open society its contribution to culture could be immeasurable.
The only power in the modern world is in the new world, in America. Paradoxically the United States is today experiencing a severe educational crisis. A famous document published in 1983, A Nation at Risk, provides an implacable and desolate diagnosis that is still valid. Every day there is more poverty and more illiteracy in the world's most powerful nation. What then can be said of us Latin American countries! Figures are horrifying, even in Argentina which was always proud to be the richest and best educated country in the region. Thus the problem of education is a problem of civilization, transcending all frontiers and cultures.
The following reflections seek a way out of this labyrinth. We know that if we persist along the path that has already been trod we will remain for ever bogged down and will be placing the destiny of new generations at risk. We will restrict ourselves in this chapter to the contribution that could be made by technology already available to society, technology that will serve to improve our education. This new path will of necessity link up with all others.
