Information and communication technology in pupil activity-centred pedagogy (1997)
Pino Fiermonte
Summary of a speech given at the AMPERE Seminar in Luxembourg, February 1997 (European Commissioners in charge : Edith Cresson and MArtin Bangemann)
Translated from French and published in "Teaching, Learning, Information : Towards an open Socratic school"
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxembourg, 1998, Luxembourg, ISBN 92-828-2414-4
Find the original speech here
"In 1944, Celestin Freinet quite rightly criticised schools for not having developed 'in the century during which printing, the still and moving picture, records, radio, the typewriter, photographs, the camera, the telephone, the train, the car and the aeroplane reign unchallenged!' (I) Since then, some of these trophies of technological progress have burst into our classrooms, and it is hardly surprising that the modem age has also seen the arrival there of new information and communication technologies - the computer and all its peripherals.
Yet Freinet went on to argue that technological tools should be introduced in accordance with the criteria he set out in his pedagogical writings, based on the principle of pupil autonomy. He added, addressing those who take the decisions, that 'children will come to regret an education that misses out on the intermediate experiences to which they will have to return, in a radical review of the education you provide'. (2)
We have to acknowledge that, despite the time that has elapsed since Freinet was writing, the telephone - the first long-distance communication tool to operate in real time and one which has had an official place in our lives since 1876 - has failed to make its way into schools except as a privilege for the school authorities; it is only in exceptional circumstances that pupils have access to telephones. Yet among the experiences to which children will, in his words, be forced to return are those such as telephoning, letter-writing and. note-taking. The fact that these 'technologies' have failed to take their place in contemporary teaching design and planning is clear evidence that the activities taking place in our classrooms are only rarely oriented towards the outside world and that we cannot consider children to be acquiring the relevant skills in using them, which are essential to the learning process. In many cases, textbooks and teachers are the only resources available.
Today, it seems clear to me that new technology is giving rise to new illusions; they have given some people the idea that to introduce new technology into teaching will result in the need completely to change the way in which educational relationships work as well as the attitudes of both pupils and teachers. The economic and social challenges faced by schools undoubtedly require teaching that will initiate pupils into the real functioning of society, which will as a result alienate them less. However, the introduction of IT is not without risks. We can avoid passive behaviour, resulting from dependence which will persist and may be strengthened, only if the new technology introduced is used to support authentic activity, that is, with the aim of coupling the acquisition of knowledge with productive work.
Tackling the problem of the introduction of new technology has to go hand in hand with consideration of the nature of the educational dialogue and of the basis and aims of teaching and training. Discovery of the social universe, self-awareness, and the structuring of the relationship between self and the social universe are achieved through authentic dialogue and activity. There remains a fundamental tension between the aims of education and the material methods used unless teaching methods change orientation and take greater account of the child's personality. It is, ultimately, the child who has to take on his responsibilities in a society which is increasingly less inclined to allow individuals the leisure to follow paths marked out in advance.
Some observers argue constantly that there is more to IT than word-processing and that we only need to have new technology available in order to use it intelligently. Nevertheless, it should he stressed that any software has a pedagogical logic within it. The term 'multimedia', chosen by the German language society as its word of the year in 1995, is too often used to refer to finished products and is used merely as a figurehead. In practice, it may well be that 'closed' or practice software on CD-ROM or CD-I could take over, which would mean that instead of encouraging pupils to take action, we would be continuing to encourage them to abdicate any responsibility for their own learning and for the knowledge they are acquiring.
Education is based largely on the myth of universal knowledge that we should like to continue to convey and disseminate by means of a computer: it fears any change oriented towards differentiated acquisition of knowledge by means of autonomous productive work.
We have to ask ourselves whether it is not the ultimate absurdity to train young people to use computers but to leave them incapable of interacting with those around them or even simply communicating by telephone. Françoise Dolto said, 'It is not worth having people who look human who are no better at teaching than machines.'(3) It seems to me to be equally true that it is not worth having new technology available unless schools make children more autonomous and more responsible and their activity, as well as their interaction, more authentic.
(1)Freinet, C. (I944), Oeuvres pédagogques, Vol.2, p. 20, Paris: Seuil.
(2) Op., cit., p. 37.
(3)Dolto, F. (I988), La cause des adolescents, p. 224, Paris: R. Laffont. |
