What Happens to Infoteachers and Infostudents After the Information Turn?

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of education after the information revolution. Why hasn’t the 4th revolution revolutionized education (yet)? Possible reasons of the recalcitrance of education are: the lack of a solid and shared corpus of evidence on the positive and negative effects of ICT on learning, and the continuously evolving nature of digital literacy. The information revolution can thus go one of two ways: the top-down, policy or project guided way, and the bottom-up way that stems from non-educational practices that are “colonised” by educational purposes. The first way has been taken by many educational reforms, but hasn’t radically changed education. What will instruction look like when (if) the 4th revolution happens in education? The paper discusses some exemplary cases of ICT practices and their effect on the main tenets of traditional education: the role of teachers and the relationship among peers, the existence of a special space and a dedicated time for learning (separated from other places and activities), the attitude (active or passive) of the learner. These practices show that education is not a natural kind, and that we can imagine different educational paths and environments. Also, they show that the simple introduction of ICT per se does not change education: an effort at re-conceptualisation as well as the definition of clear and measurable objectives, are necessary conditions for a real change to happen.