elearning

The e-Learning in question

Start

Based on Joël de Rosnay's Chronicles on the Swiss Up website, made as predictions in the years 2002-2003, UP' Magazine proposes to retranscribe them here week by week, for a little reflection on the time that has passed. Was he right?

"12-year-olds should teach 25-year-olds and 25-year-olds should teach 40-year-olds" (January 2002).

Joël de Rosnay is one of those scientists who like to popularize, in the noble sense of the term. Author of numerous books on man and science, he is also the father of neologisms which often turned out to correspond a few years later to a real reality. This is why Joël de Rosnay today perfectly bears his title of "Director of Foresight and Evaluation" at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. This researcher also knows the world of education very well, having taught at the famous MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Cambridge. He proposes a new approach to education and training - "co-education".

Your definition of the knowledge society is one in which young people teach older people. What does this imply for teachers?

We have moved from a society of an industrial nature in which we produced objects to a society in which we produce knowledge and know-how. In the context of this accelerated production of information, there is a need for each individual to find and use relevant information. This implies finding a different form of teaching than the one we have known in the past, linear teaching (a teacher teaching students in a classroom). We need to engage in a snowball effect policy, we need to engage in "co-education". Participation in this teaching process must be extended to people other than teachers: retired people with a certain know-how, professionals who work in companies and can pass on their knowledge, and young people who have mastered the new technologies. Let us reverse the chain: let 12-year-olds teach 25-year-olds, and 25-year-olds teach 40-year-olds. We are not using these young people sufficiently as a vehicle for knowledge. Instead, they have to do a real obstacle course to get through the education system.

Why not enjoy unlimited reading of UP'? Subscribe from €1.90 per week.

How would that work out in practice?

We need to give time and motivation to this generation and change the structure of the school system. We have divided nature into disciplines (physics, chemistry, history, etc.), and added disciplines as new knowledge is developed. We have reached the limits of this sequential and analytical disciplinary vision of knowledge. It is now necessary to develop a transversal, systemic approach to knowledge. Use the theories of chaos and networks, for example, which are vectors for bringing disciplines closer together. And here again, reverse the approach: start with the complex sciences that motivate students or schoolchildren, such as ecology, economics and biology, and then move on to the different disciplines involved in these sciences. This is how we can motivate young people to participate in this "co-education". Group and network work should also be encouraged. The teacher then becomes a mediator, a catalyst of knowledge.

Does this approach correspond to the reality of teaching today?

We're getting close. Theoretically, this approach is accepted by many. But in practice, it comes up against problems of power. The teachers' territory, based on the discipline to which each one belongs, is being called into question, as well as the financing of their sector and their power. We have refined the definitions and division of disciplines so much that teachers today spend a lot of time fighting to protect their territories, instead of trying to work in a transdisciplinary approach.

And the individual... In this new society of knowledge and new technologies, the individual is faced with an overabundance of information, and sometimes finds it difficult to find his way around. How can one not be drowned?

This is precisely what teachers need to convey to students. Give them tools, help them sort through the information. To enable them to build this multidimensional chain: data, whose real information must be preserved, which builds knowledge that in turn forms knowledge. It is precisely the teacher's art to help integrate the different elements of the chain.

(Interview Joël de Rosnay, futurologist at the Cité des Sciences in Paris)

"Let's mobilize so we don't get drowned in the multimedia packages of American companies"

Joël de Rosnay believes deeply in new technologies and the gains they bring to training. According to the Director of Foresight and Evaluation at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris, e-learning is set to develop very rapidly. American companies have already understood this. If European players do not quickly implement their own strategies and products, we will be running straight into what the futurist calls the "Mcdonaldisation" of training.

How will e-learning develop?

To fight against disinformation and to favour analyses that decipher the news, join the circle of UP' subscribers.

All studies show that e-learning will develop in a very important way. We have identified 40 to 50 start-ups in the United States that are present on this market and that offer personalised "packages": companies are spearheading this movement. They implement solutions based on their intranet or create e-corporate universities on the Internet. The second market is the public undergoing training in schools. And the third is the general public, who are looking for tailor-made training in all sorts of fields. It is extremely important that e-learning is used as part of a pedagogical project and treated as a complement to traditional training, which allows contact between teacher and student. E-learning remains a tool among others, and does not replace other forms of teaching.

What role should e-learning play in training?

There are new players in the world of training. There are schools, but also training in companies, the Internet, the media, exhibitions and trade fairs, etc. All these activities exist, but they are not coordinated. We need to mobilise and coordinate the new players and put in place major national policies in this area. If we do not do this quickly, we run the great risk of being inundated by ready-made American "multimedia packages", which are likely to swamp Europe as American TV series have done before. These products do not take into account the European vision, they are not contextualized, dealt with in the European context. So the players need to coordinate and use significant resources to develop their own products.

Why exactly should e-learning and new technologies be used?

Every technology must be used optimally. E-learning has strengths and weaknesses, so we must optimise its strengths. If the teacher makes good use of the technology available, he or she can take much more time for discussion and debate in class. An example: working in groups on a topic, and sending each group of students to the Internet to search for information. This will save a lot of time compared to physically searching for documents in a library or elsewhere. The transmission of each group's findings to the others will then allow a real discussion in class, which has a real added value.

Yet the Universities are showing some resistance to this development, why?

The use of new tools forces us to question ourselves. The Internet gives a very high degree of comparability of information. You no longer have a single vision of the world, but access to a multitude of visions, allowing you to form your own opinion. It is the same for education. New technologies imply a permanent critique of one's own model. It is also very easy to demolish current technologies, but more difficult to place oneself in a new paradigm.

Chronicles by Joël de Rosnay on the Swiss Up website / Predictions 2002-2003 on Wifi, RFID, the future of Google, Grid computing, the student of the future... (The Crossroads of the Future)

 {Jacuzzi on}

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
gridcomputing
Previous article

"Grid Computing": a planetary brain is being born...

wireless homes2
Next article

WiMedia: wireless multimedia at home

Latest articles from Archives Analyses

JOIN

THE CIRCLE OF THOSE WHO WANT TO UNDERSTAND OUR TIME OF TRANSITION, LOOK AT THE WORLD WITH OPEN EYES AND ACT.
logo-UP-menu150

Already registered? I'm connecting

Register and read three articles for free. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest news.

→ Register for free to continue reading.

JOIN

THE CIRCLE OF THOSE WHO WANT TO UNDERSTAND OUR TIME OF TRANSITION, LOOK AT THE WORLD WITH OPEN EYES AND ACT

You have received 3 free articles to discover UP'.

Enjoy unlimited access to our content!

From $1.99 per week only.
Share
Tweet
Share
WhatsApp
Email