Web & educational change:
what really matters?
Pisa, November 19st 2008
Bastien Guerry
One Laptop Per Child

Three fallacies in ICT/Education
● The Electrified teacher (R. Casati)
● Digital Natives ? (M. Prensky)
● The Ebook illusion

Content / Interfaces / People
Content People
Interfaces

Content / Interfaces / People
Content
People
People
Interfaces
(Soft|Hard)

The hole in the wall

The Web revolution?
● Story: the « hole in the wall »
● So what? Access to new content
● Thesis: the main impact of the web
on education is about content (not
interfaces or people)

Collaborating children

New practices in education?
● Story: collaborating children
● So what? New access to people
● Thesis: the main impact of new
interfaces on education is about
collaboration

WikiPedia vs Second Life
● WP is a hit because 1) it brings
new content and 2) it uses a very
simple interface to let people
collaborate
● SL is a miss because 1) it relies
on people and 2) it uses a complex
interface to let them access to
poor content

OLPC and education
● Bringing access to new content
● Promoting collaboration among
children

Thanks - bzg@laptop.org