Rencontres de l'Orme 2.15: strengthening the action of the educational community in favor of student success

Two-part report on our employee's participation in the 21^e Meetings of the Elm, in Marseille. Today: introduction and discoveries made on site.

I had the pleasure of participating in Elm Encounters 2.15, which took place in Marseille, France, on May 20 and 21, 2015. Here I give some general impressions, reflections of the choices I had to make on site. As for the discussions with the editors and the schoolchildren who presented their work, they are due to the chance of my trips on the site.

This report in two parts will first present what the Rencontres de l'Orme are and the discoveries made at the exhibitors' fair and by meeting students and teachers. Tomorrow, I will give a brief summary of three round tables I attended, which set out the concerns of our cousins with regard to digital integration.

What are the Rencontres de l'Orme?

"Orme" is the acronym of the Observatory of multimedia resources in education. This is a national mission of the Canopé Académie d'Aix-Marseille. Canopé is a national network meeting the needs of the French educational community, which aims to strengthen the latter's action in favor of student success.

L'Orme is a network of education professionals who work to promote the use of multimedia and the Internet by the education community. Orme sits at the intersection of publishing and documentation with educational engineering. Orme seeks to connect designers, decision-makers and users and promote a regional interactive multimedia industry.

L'Orme is particularly known for its annual Rencontres, which take place in Marseille, of which it was the 21^e edition this year.

Young and old, together to showcase their successes

The Rencontres de l'Orme attracts a wide variety of exhibitors. A whole corner was occupied by publishers of textbooks, while digital products and services for education were shared more than 45 kiosks on two levels of exposure.

Several caught my interest, including NIPIB (New educational imagery of the invisible), which presents virtual images of microscopic observations, the result of a collaboration between ITOP education, laboratories of the University of Lorraine as well as many volunteer teachers. The impressive images were chosen according to the school programs of the college (high school) and high school (CEGEP level).

The free space informed visitors about various open source software available. All the big names were present as well as groups of teachers like Viaeduct, the departmental and regional council, an impressive space dedicated to Integratice Handicap and finally, the jar, a transparent studio offered continuous interviews with researchers, manufacturers, artists and teachers.

In several places on the site, students and teachers also presented their work. I met confident adolescents there, in their position of digital native that they had no embarrassment to remind me, but also very small, shy ones, who gently explained their projects. There were also enthusiastic teachers, for whom digital technology really gives meaning to their practice. In short, people who are happy to show off their successes.

This short immersion in the French universe allowed me to see that the digital offer to primary and secondary teachers is satisfactory in terms of its diversity and, as with us, several teachers are very creatively integrating these technologies into their teaching.

Part two to follow tomorrow!