Opening : Cyberculture breaths, Jean-Louis Weissberg (University of Paris XIII)
Moral chronicle ( summary), Alain Vergnioux (University of Caen)
The production of music and its dissemination falls into
two complementary areas : walkman music and world music. On the
one hand, we find cellular fragmentation, on the other, global
uniformity. The author recalls a third possibility : free music. A
small group of jazzmen from the 60s and 70s working in this area
achieved a high degree of incandescent power.
Notion : Proof ( summary), Maris-Clotilde Pirot (University of Rennes II)
Providing a proof, accepting one, refuting or repudiating
one..., problems are raised by all these diverse notions. Drawing
on juridical and ethnological practices, where issues about
establishing proof appear in all their complexity, the author
engages in a many-sided and nuanced epistemological investigation
of the idea of proof. On the way, she deals with the notions of
testimony, demonstration, knowledge and certainty.
Report: Education and media
Presentation, Dominique Ottavi (University of Paris VIII)
Television, schools and symbolic function ( summary), Dany-Robert Dufour
Neo-liberal society not only alters people's behaviour and
thought, it also brings about a new form of
subjectivity. Dany-Robert Dufour sees television and schools as
important contributors to this process. They have disrupted man's
age-old relationship to signifiers, fables, images. The
development of means of communication and of sensory prosthetic
devices can be harmful for some children : while those whose
symbolic structures are well in place can cope without difficulty,
for others they help to disrupt still further their powers of
thought and their personality. The crisis of authority in schools
is linked with something even worse : in developed countries, the
failure of some young people to respond to teaching leads to
outbursts of violence, while the recycling of libertarian ideas
from the 60s has the effect of covering up this malaise within the
system.
News pictures and media education ( summary), Serge Tisseron (University of Paris X)
In his essay Serge Tisseron reflects on the events of 9/11
and tries to assess the media impact on young people. In the light
of theories presented in his last work Children under influence :
is television making children violent ?, he analyses the mental
and emotional confusion brought about by these incredible, yet
realistic, scenes of destruction. Children's ability to assimilate
them was not helped by the absence on television of precise
information about New York City and about what exactly was going
on in the pictures. This means that adults need to be
understandingly tolerant towards children's reactions as well as
vigilant.
Sociology of knowledge and radio/television ( summary), Jean Cazeneuve
In this 1962 essay, Jean Cazeneuve describes the
distinctive features of televisual communication as compared with
writing, still photography, cinema and radio, so as to identify
some of the 'particularities of the culture which it
generates'. It is true that television can have an educational
function, both for children and for adults. This is shown by
surveys of viewers' reactions and by studies of programme
content. At the same time, as J. Cazeneuve stresses, television is
a powerful medium in the fascination it exerts, the sensory
overload that it produces, and the tendency for those who appear
on it to be made into stars. All these things serve to depress
intellectual activity and favour regression towards more primitive
forms of thought.
Learning-through-play CD roms ( summary), Sébastien Pezous (Bayard Publishing)
Learning-through-play CD roms are commercial products
which seek to bring together playing and learning, and are
intended for children as well as parents. Sébastien Pezous
discusses the interesting features of these games, as well as
their limitations. How can they be assessed in terms of learning ?
It seems from careful examination of these CD roms that some of
them fall short in being too imprecise in their content. It is an
important task to marry together the play aspect and the
intellectual, mindful that there is an ethical dimension to this
as well.
Television and school learning ( summary), Maguy Chailley (IUFM of Versailles)
Young people are as keen as ever on television despite the
emergence of new media. The author reflects on the relationship
between television and learning, despite the fact that it is often
linked with leisure and recreation - unlike the computer, which is
seen as more 'serious'. Television's contribution to learning can
be seen in what goes on in schools. It is used in class teaching,
usually in the shape of documentary material; but it is the TV
viewing in which pupils engage in their daily lives that is the
richest source of learning, especially if teachers encourage
children to reflect on what they have been watching. Although the
work teachers do here is indirect, it is certainly very
fruitful. Some examples are provided in this essay.
Government priorities in ICT ( summary), Hélène Ormières (Technology Authority - French Department of Education)
The Ministry of National Education has launched a number
of measures aimed at integrating new ICT developments in education
as these affect both staff and students. This article focuses on
schools. It looks at various initiatives designed to promote new
kinds of pedagogical practice : networks, new programmes, a
college certificate in computer science, databases. The
'information environment' of pupils and teachers is a new concept
and its potentialities go beyond technical matters. The article
also examines the creation of new kinds of pedagogical equipment
and the ways in which people can link up with outside enterprises
; and it discusses the legal aspects of the use of ICT and
partnerships with educational bodies and national public
institutions. As well as discussing the various issues involved,
the article is a useful practical guide.
Correspondence : The relationship between work and education ( summary), Carlo Pancera (University of Ferrare)
Work is cultural production and helps to shape the
culture. It can be both action on matter and a source of
distress. C. Pancera casts doubt on the idea that leisure
(scholè) has been the main necessary condition of intellectual
work : a sounder dichotomy is between economic activities in the
private domain and public activities : on the one hand, technical
knowledge ; on the other, abstractions. The aim of education is
the transmission of these different kinds of experience, which, as
they become diversified and more distant, produce a
'world-labyrinth'. When it is put to the test, work becomes
charged with spirituality, forms a part of moral education and
regulates human affairs. In a society marked by leisure and by
fragmentation, education is given a new responsibility to work for
the creation of a common and open culture.
Correspondence : The first lesson in morality : an interpretation of the
episode in Rousseau's Emile about planting beans ( summary), Maria de Fatima Simoes Francisco (University of Sao Paulo)
The episode about planting beans in Emile is presented
both as the first lesson in morality and as a defence of private
property. In the light of the denunciation of the latter in the
Discourse on Inequality, how can we explain this paradox ? The
author's interpretation consists in showing that the birth of the
moral sentiment requires an awareness of the other person and that
Rousseau's account is significant because this awareness comes
about via a conflict situation. Pedagogically, the passage reminds
us that learning must be based as much on emotion as on reflection
; and that, contra received wisdom about Rousseau as the apostle
of non-directiveness, the tutor intervenes with great precision as
a situation unfolds which he has been careful to
initiate.
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