What is a digital resource?

On the occasion of the Ludovia Summer University, one of the round tables helped define, from various points of view, what a digital resource is. Here are the various answers. Which do you subscribe to?

The moderator of the round table entitled "Digital resources, between consumption and creation: which way are teachers going or should they go?" », Michel Guillou, asked the panelists to put their cards on the table by defining what a digital resource is for them.

First, Alain Thillay, from the Digital Education Department (DNE) distinguishes between “digital resources” and “digital educational resources”. In the latter, he establishes three categories: editorial resources (made by a group, an association, a publisher), editorial resources of opportunity (they are not a priori designed for teaching, but they are all the same used by teachers, such as museum resources, a newspaper, etc.), then teachers' productions (especially designed for teaching and learning). He then classifies digital educational resources into three categories: those that allow learning to search, analyze (display, explain), or evaluate, publish and share. It is to this last category that digital brings the most, in his opinion. Thanks to digital technology, it is more than ever possible to pass resources from one to another (teacher to teacher or student, student to student).

For his part, Kristophe Léonard, a primary school teacher in the Ariège region, considers the digital resource by what it allows to achieve in class with the students. It favors those which allow the student to learn. For example, he likes to use IWB software (even without IWB), which creates a good dynamic with the students. He appreciates the potential offered by the technique to generate new learning situations or to personalize teaching, to have feedback on what each student has done.

On this, Alain Thillay makes a parenthesis on the polysemy of the word “resource”: it can signify a content, an associated content and service, or a tool (which, moreover, is not a “resource” according to him). He specifies that we tend to group everything together. The material resource is part of the general framework, it is not at the heart of the teacher's job. That said, he recognizes that without material, the rest cannot be achieved.

Sylviane Lévy, teacher-researcher at the University of Mexico, then distinguishes the resources created by the professors in educational sequences and the resources created by multidisciplinary teams (including content, designers, directors, resources edited by professionals), as is the case in his team. In this context, one of the great challenges is the generalization of these resources, which often come from the experience of a teacher, so that they can be used by the greatest number.

Kristophe Léonard specifies that he favors what makes it possible to generate new situations. He considers that the resource is a simple element of consumption and prefers to lead the pupils to design from tools. For example, he cites the active image, on which the student constructs to give it meaning.

Sophie Vigneron, from Editis, distinguishes between granular resources on the one hand, and structured resources on the other (such as the educational path, which we can follow step by step, but in which we can add or remove elements. ). For example, the digital textbook which presents video enrichment, maps, interactive exercises.

Finally for Jennifer Elbaz, from BrainPop, the student must be placed at the center of their learning. The digital resource can be a motivator for this. The resources allow the student to acquire knowledge, understand and move forward. In his opinion, personalizing learning paths is a huge job for the teacher!

And you, how do you define the digital resource?