Nowadays, digital technology is omnipresent and the education system is not spared from it. In France, this transition is taking place slowly, driven by political ambitions such as the recent ones Digital Strategy for Education 2023-2027 launched by former Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye. A few years ago, Sweden made a sudden transition to fully digital schooling before becoming disillusioned recently. Today she is backing down and bringing school textbooks up to date. Are his arguments justified? Is it risky to go fully digital at school? What points should you pay attention to? Three specialists in cognitive psychology provide their insights.
An article that can be found in the magazine Inserm No. 58
Severine Erhel: It all depends on how digital tools are used
If all we do is replace physical media with digital media, for example loading a PDF of a text onto a tablet, it won’t work. Several Meta-analyses indicate that reading on paper leads to better comprehension results in these situations. One of the key elements is the content displayed on the tablet. Several studies have shown that the use of information presentation methods (integrating explanatory text into an illustration, inserting animations, using verbal modality) improves the quality of learning. We have more than 30 years of experience in this regard. For example, by adding a verbal comment to an image, it is possible to better distribute the load in working memory and thus better understand and retain the information.
Digital technology also enables the use of specific learning strategies, such as: B. Scaffolding: We encourage learners to engage in metacognitive activities so that they become aware of what they are processing and their level of knowledge while learning. This is particularly about integrating feedback: For example, when reading content, include a quiz to test understanding, ideally with an explanatory answer.
Another important element: support, especially for the little ones. Giving tablets alone to children brings no benefit. This is technological solutionism. The role of the teacher remains important. This raises several problems: a sufficient number of tablets are needed and teachers do not always have the appropriate training to produce this content, which is very time-consuming and not valued (socially and financially). The rectorates must involve teachers, as in Rennes, where participatory design approaches were initiated.
Séverine Erhel is a lecturer in cognitive psychology and ergonomics in the Laboratory of Psychology: Cognition, Behavior and Communication at the University of Rennes 2..
Pascal Huguet: A debate that must not be driven by ideological positions
Our education system suffers from a major problem: it reproduces educational inequalities based on the social background of students much more than other OECD countries. However, as part of the e-P3C (for “Plurality of contexts, skills and behaviors”) research project, we have shown experimentally that there is interest in certain possible uses of digital technologies, in particular in intelligent tutorial systems (ITS) that imitate a human tutor by adapts to the level of each learner. These ITS were developed in collaboration with teaching teams using the Tactiléo platform from Maskott and are intended to make the presentation of learning content as varied as possible and thus increase the likelihood that it will be understandable for all students. (Who also benefited from it.) Feedback via ITS). This is what our four-year studies of thousands of students showWith STI, students from disadvantaged backgrounds progress so much that they reach the same level of performance as their classmates from disadvantaged backgrounds in the control group (without STI).. This work suggests that the debate about digital technology should not be driven by ideological positions “for” or “against” digital technology in schools. The problem lies not in the technologies themselves, but in the way we use them.
However, in order to discover and validate useful possible uses, it is essential to draw on research and scientific findings in the field of “digital education” collected over decades. France is starting to catch up in this area through funding (such as the e-FRAN call for “digital training, research and animation spaces” projects) dedicated to studies that can shed light on this whether the question works or not. Such work is essential to overcome ideological positions regarding digital technologies for teaching, training and learning.
Pascal Huguet is Research Director at CNRS and Director of the Laboratory of Social and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Clermont-Auvergne.
Gregoire Borst: The need to better evaluate these tools and provide training in their use
One of the biggest challenges of digital technology in schools is to systematically assess whether these tools used in the classroom actually lead to expected student learning outcomes. Today, teachers have access to a range of digital tools that have not necessarily been evaluated. This is unacceptable as it means less time for social interactions between teachers and students, which is one of the keys to learning. The other point of vigilance concerns the data collected by these digital devices. While they allow research teams to explore what explains variability in student learning trajectories, this data is used by software developers primarily for commercial purposes.. The use of this sensitive and personal data raises numerous ethical questions about which students must be informed. In general, students need to be better trained in the use of these tools and digital technology in general. After all, it makes no sense to use them across the board in schools without first thinking about teacher training. Without this, the tools will not have the expected impact.
Despite their limitations, they allow students to achieve academic differentiation and individual paths that can be difficult for teachers to implement in the classroom. Another advantage: Digital technology enables very quick error feedback, which is an important learning step. With these tools, it is also possible to design real-time formative assessment systems that are used to develop students’ skills.
In France, the trend is to bring digital technology into schools, but in a context where our education system lags far behind others. The role of digital technology is still relatively weak, particularly due to equipment difficulties. The advantage is that we can benefit from the experiences of more advanced countries.
Grégoire Borst is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience of Education (University of Paris Cité) and Director of the Laboratory of Child Development and Educational Psychology (CNRS) in Paris.
Author: BS
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