- 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
VI. DIGITAL TRANSITION
Critical thought
In current systems of education it is naturally, or resignedly, accepted that "someone" (from the ministry, the school board or elsewhere) will think for us, will tell us what to do and how, when and where we must teach and learn. We prefer to follow rules imposed from above rather than to run the risk of being independent. Often teachers claiming to think otherwise, when standing in front of a classroom blindly follow unfounded conventions and turn their backs on the world. However, if teachers do not develop a critical approach to their own educational actions, including even the most trivial, it will be hard for them to transmit such thinking to their pupils.
We recommend the "bell test" to measure the level of conservatism in a school. We all know that it is not necessary to ring a bell to end a class. One glance at a watch is enough. However, observation will show that the arguments for continuing to use bells are as numerous as they are false. Many date back to the factory systems of the previous century. In may places it would be easier to install a high-tech piece of equipment like a computer than to abolish a low-tech artifact such as a bell. Here there is a serious conceptual confusion that reveals a still primitive state in the process of transition towards the autonomy of learning. We live subjected to external law, even in the case of such trivial acts as the ordering of the school timetable.
