- 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
VIII. THE DIGITAL LIBRARY
The dual book
Books are the basis of civilization. It is not possible to imagine an education without books, without publications. They are the material support of ideas, sufficiently robust to last without too much deterioration, light to carry, easy to hold, stack and keep. A sort of universal brick, essential for all intellectual construction, a reliable and resistant external memory on which modern society has been built. Verba volant scripta manent, words are carried away by the wind but texts remain and ensure the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. So much so that until now a visit to a school library revealed the quality of the education provided by the institution. On the other hand, the lack of books is a sign of deceit or censorship, cultural backwardness, mental and economic penury.
This situation has radically altered. Modern books do not require material support, or even shelves. All the functions fulfilled to date by books, and some others that are hard to imagine, can be transferred to the world of bits. This change from atoms to bits provides new hope for poorer educational establishments outside the mainstream, and will decisively alter the cultural investment of the individual and society.
In the short term all texts, books, newspapers and magazines will be "dual", one version on paper and another digital. There is no need to go further than the enormous number of newspapers and magazines (over one thousand publications) available as always at corner kiosks but also distributed around the world by Internet. Some do it for free and others request a monthly fee. Such options reveal a certain degree of commercial indecision regarding penetration in the new digital market, but this matter will be resolved gradually. This will in turn also imply the resolving of the matter of author's rights and the trade in ideas or patents in the digital era.
Our book was conceived in dual versions as from conception. As authors we reserved the right to do so. We are pleased to think we are cooperating to expand the digital breach in the world of books. Perhaps the reader will begin by browsing the book in its digital version through the network, although he or she will always have the option of buying it in a bookstore, or it could simply be printed at home (perhaps on recyclable paper).
In short, from a technical point of view there is nothing to prevent a book printed as "atoms" from being distributed through the network in bits. In effect, today books are written on a word-processor, are born in digital format and are immediately suited to digital networks.
