Articles of the Month

Education.net - When Technology and Learning Go Hand-in-Hand

These days, we often see students using a portable computer or a cellular telephone. However, tools of this kind have been available to the average person for only a few years. In this modern society of ours, where major changes are the order of the day, we tend more and more to use various tools to facilitate certain tasks or to directly access various sources of information. This is particularly true in Canada. Each day, we make frequent use of various technological tools for learning or simply for entertainment. This trend toward making technology part of our lifestyle is only going to increase.

Because access to information needs to be structured and simple, because young people are the main users of these technologies, because we have to prepare for the future... It is for these many reasons that the SchoolNet Youth Advisory Board (SYAB) was created more than a year ago. With a focus on the use of technology in learning and education and its influence on these, the SchoolNet Youth Advisory Board has been and continues to be called on to take action by making clear and complete recommendations on more appropriate and effective use of technology in Canada.

As you know, the Internet is, without a doubt, one of the increasingly present tools worldwide. From this perspective, Joël de Rosnaystated in Les Dossiers de l'Audiovisuel, "[translation] The strength of the Internet lies mostly in the capacity for navigation that the network provides." It is this asset that makes the Internet so popular. Telling proof of this is the fact that the number of users under age 35 in Canada rose from 37.3% in 1997 to 76.2% in 2001.1 Providing direct access to previously inaccessible sources of knowledge, making it possible to travel from one end of the planet to the other with just a click of the mouse, this network has become an indispensable tool for enriching culture and knowledge. This is just one example among many of the kind of thing that SYAB is always discussing. How can we properly integrate the Internet into school classes? Is it necessary for us to train children to make effective use of the network? How can the Internet help schools enrich their students' knowledge and what tools will need to be supplied and used? The SchoolNet Youth Advisory Board is finding answers to all these questions.

Since the future is shaped in part by young people, it is important to establish an effective system with regard to the relationship between technology and education. In a few years, young children will go to school and be surrounded by a variety of tools making it possible to enrich their knowledge. It is precisely then that those who will have been working to prepare the future will see their efforts rewarded. For a country that is more connected and for teaching that is more dynamic, SYAB is trying to propose concrete solutions, in order that the words "education" and "technology" may be synonymous.