25 years of exploration, experimentation, education, learning ... on digital, and with digital

The École branchée will celebrate its 25 years of activity on April 2. Here are the testimonials of two of the founding members of our organization. Do like them and tell us about your encounter with the École branchée!

We collect your testimonials here!

Testimonial from Clément Laberge, co-founder

Ahhhhh… there would be so much to tell! There are the first texts, published on a Web very different from the one we know (it was even before the creation of Google, that is to say!). And the first correspondence from French-speaking teachers in Italy and Japan, the discovery of the openness to the world that the information highway (as it was called then!) Could provide teachers… and children! 

March 1996 - The genesis

Around a pizza, I made the project with André Girard (Editor's note: then a professor at the cégep de Sainte-Foy) to group together our " educational bookmarks ”On a poster, to allow our fellow teachers to get an image of this New World. Two nights of work later, I arrive at my cousin's, who has just founded iXmedia, challenging him to transform my to post- DIY-with-inspiration-a few-sheets-and-lots-of-sticky-paper in professional poster. Two weeks later, we disembark without notice at the exhibition of the exhibitors of the AQUOPS with a bundle of posters under his arm. I will directly see the only person I know there, Jean Sylvestre, who found us a little corner to set up a table. In the following two days, we sold 500 copies of this “Quebec Infobourg 1.0 educational resources map”. (Addition of editorial staff!)

My most fond memories, however, are linked to projects like Operation Crayons. Imagine! In a few days, the community which had taken shape around the Infobourg collected tens of thousands of colored pencils intended for the children victims of the war in Kosovo, that is to say a container full of paper and pencils, which have been patiently sorted during a chore at the Musée de la civilization. We discovered the power of the Web to facilitate collaboration!

And how can we forget that, in 1997, we published a book, all of the content of which was also on the Web. We were told that we wouldn't sell it, because everyone obviously preferred to print it at home from the Internet ... And yet no (it seems obvious today, but at the time, it was necessary to believe!). We did the same thing with a magazine… which became the École branchée! We were also exploring new economic models.

The Infobourg, which became the École branchée, then passed from hand to hand, until it was Audrey's turn to take care of it (masterfully, it must be said!). I am so proud to see what all this has become… and continues to be! Well done, and thank you Audrey!

Already twenty-five years of exploration, experimentation, education, learning… on digital, and with digital.

Long live the École branchée!

Clement Laberge, co-founder

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Testimony of Carl-Frédéric De Celles, the “cousin” in question!

Of two madmen (Clément Laberge and André Girard) who wanted to create a specialized directory website and finance the operation by selling a to post paper to today, there is a whole section of the history of the Quebec educational Web, its innovation, its taste for sharing, and its funding.

From the emergence of blogs and public participation to the evaluation of the educational resources listed on the Infobourg site, I remember very well a Sunday afternoon when I laid out the page, just to the fun, some texts and columns from the blog with the idea of turning it into a magazine. A physical paper tool, which could be a source of income and reach a more “traditional” audience beyond the initial enthusiasts, to support them in the great digital evolution of the school environment.

Because the history of the paper, here, is more than that of a "war" between two worlds, but well a hope of their strategic alliance (a Trojan horse) to interest and advance all the school field in the universe. digital. One experiment among others, which, I believe, has helped to bring together a whole network of passionate educators. And when I say pedagogues, I am referring to the entire “school” community, from teachers to parents.

My greatest wishes for the future

May this community remain open and passionate, and make room for the best digital reflexes of the new generations.

“Stop talking about bends, because to veer for 25 years, we go in circles. "

“Stop talking about bends, because to veer for 25 years, we go in circles. "

And that we assume once and for all that “transformation” and “change” are the very essence of our world, and that the management of these things are basic skills of all of society, digital or not.

Carl-Frédéric De Celles, president, iXmedia