- 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
V. NEW TOOLS AND OLD
Desk and work
One of the most revolutionary innovations in teaching in the last century was without doubt the integrated and modular design of a wooden desk and bench for each pupil, with its individual inkwell, hollows for pens and pencils, folding seat and support for books and copybooks. This technology can be considered the forerunner of the modern workstation conceived for the desktop computer. Comparison between the two technologies is revealing. The school bench and desk became popular the world over and became the first piece of furniture designed exclusively for education. The initial design was improved over the years, becoming a little more ergonomic to provide greater comfort for lengthy periods in a sedentary position with anatomically designed curves for chair bottom and back rest. Desks of different sizes were designed for different ages. In short, a new technology was developed that was highly successful in its time.
However, this design was linked to a traditional teaching role, where the instructor is at the front of the class. The benches and desks were set in rows facing the blackboard and the teacher's dais, but were no use in forming discussion groups. Students received magistral lessons but turned their backs on each other, reinforcing a conduct of subordination. One went "up front" to give a lesson in the same way as one took to the stage in the theater.
When teaching methods began to change as a result of movements such as the "active school" this rigid spatial configuration of a frontal nature began to change, as did the furniture. New teaching methods required new uses of classroom space. In the period of transition towards more flexible configurations, new and interesting designs were tried out: polygonal tables that were quickly assembled, stacking chairs, etc. At present the system is searching for new equilibrium following the incorporation of computers in the classroom, which have complicated the scene. We would ask just how many fixed computers are necessary in a classroom. Why not also encourage the use of portable computers? However, there are few educational establishments that dare to disassemble the classroom, to make it more flexible. There is something sacred in the traditional classroom. We think that opening the classroom up is the best solution. In reality the digital era will do away with the classroom as a closed physical space.
