Open classroom walls with digital technology

Within the framework of CIRT @ 2017 conference, an interactive transfer session entitled “opening the classroom walls with digital technology” took place on October 10 at UQAM.

The four panellists present were unanimous: collaboration is essential to bring the various actors in education to leave the marked trails.

4 panelists, 4 perspectives, the same vision of collaboration

The first presenter, Thomas Forissier, is in particular responsible for teaching based on digital collaboration (synchronous and asynchronous) between the Antilles and Quebec. Limited from the point of view of collaboration given the differences in the school system or in the relationship to the hierarchy, he wants to see the emergence of a community of practice and a network that will facilitate collaboration and communication on a larger scale between the different bodies, teachers and students.

Coordinator of the Technology-education showcase, Pierre-Julien Guay notes the virtues of virtual reality and online personal engagement for learning. Rich and varied, these technologies promote the development of autonomy, through real daily experiences, self-improvement and the sharing of knowledge. According to Mr. Guay, the collaboration resulting from the use of these technologies even makes it possible to avoid a digital divide between the various stakeholders.

Adept of virtual reality and more particularly of photography and 360 video, the educational advisor STORY Benoit Petit demonstrates the multiple possible applications. A window open to the world, this technology strengthens the students' power to act on their environment. Aware of the high user fees, Mr. Petit proposed to buy lots of glasses and new or used mobile devices that could then be shared by all the students of a school board.

Margarida romero, professor at the University of Nice, underlines for her part that the opening of the class by the digital one must be approached on the human level. Technologies will solve complex problems and bring together several skills, but this will only be possible if we act collectively.

In short, this session showed that, despite their different perspective, all of these stakeholders perceive collaboration as a way of making the use of technologies prosper.