It is said that many thousands of years ago we began to count with our fingers, from whence came numbers or digits, which were ten. Until 0 was conceived. Leibniz proved that all numbers can be written using just two digits, 1 and 0, inaugurating the "binary age" in the Seventeenth Century. Later it was demonstrated that this simplification favored automatic calculation, and that machines could perform any calculation effectively carried out by a human calculator (also known as a "computer"). These machines were known as "digital computers". Binary digits 1 and 0 were baptized bits and they became the "elements" of information. And so the "digital era" began in the middle of this century. Digital machines were revealed as "universal machines", and soon overflowed the numerical course of their origins. Not only do they serve to perform massive calculations at great speed. These same binary digits can be used to represent and to transmit all kinds of information, to process text, images and sound.
This prodigious versatility has profoundly transformed society at the end of the century, and as we will see has led to an irreversible transformation in education. In particular it has inverted the educational paradigm based on the school as the traditional center of attraction and focus of learning. Digital education has begun to spread learning outside schools, colleges and universities, taking it into homes and workplaces as a result of the growing use of information technology and telecommunications.
The raw material of this new education is the bit per second, the quantity of information per unit of time. Hence the fascinating possibility of radiating bits around the world. Digital education is based precisely on this centrifugal distribution of knowledge. Bits are indestructible elements, rather like a hereditary gene transmitted intact from generation to generation. It has an unlimited capacity for combining with other bits and can move at the speed of light along digital networks. Binary digits 1 and 0 are sufficient in themselves to represent the most varied forms of a continuous and changing world, the "analog" world in which we live. This is the process known as "digitization". Nothing will ever be the same since digitization, although it is still difficult for us to comprehend the true impact of this new mode of communication and information, in particular its effect on the education of coming generations.
A thought-provoking mental exercise: If we were to resuscitate a surgeon who practiced a century ago, and were to lead him into a modern operating theater, he would be lost and quite unable to practice his profession. However, it we were to awaken a teacher who taught a century ago, inviting him to our neighborhood school, he would certainly not find it very different, and would no doubt be able to give his lesson. This comparison (which is not our own) may be irritating, but it is true. One immediate interpretation is that education has not progressed as fast as medical science. However, and this is the core message of this book, there are many signs that on the threshold of the Twenty-first Century education is about to undergo a transformation such as it has never experienced. A digital change.
In effect, we are present at the death throes of an ancient system of education. At all levels of education, from kindergartens to higher centers of research and teaching, we find that we are at a critical transition stage in the educational system. At this point the slightest disturbance in political, social or economic conditions could lead educational establishments to swing towards irreversible regression or into a new, constructive stage, brimming with challenges and unanswered questions. All that would be necessary would be a wave of ideological "fundamentalism" or commercial "protectionism" for the education of the future to be irreparably harmed. On the other hand, the impulse of a genuine "deregulation" of communications and education is all that would be necessary to open up new opportunities for teaching and learning of all types and at all levels.
Nobody knows exactly when or where this new world of digital education will manifest itself, but there are certainly many indications of the demise of traditional education. It is just a matter of anticipating that moment, being prepared to offer new solutions to new problems, rather as happened with the fall or the Berlin Wall. We are personally convinced of the victory of freedom and the falling of barriers that restrict education. This book is written from such an optimistic viewpoint. Our greatest wish is to contribute to interpreting the early warnings of this change, outlining some paths for the future of education. We are conscious of our limitations however, and do not believe in scientific prophesies. What follows is a reflection on what can be done in practice to provoke these digital changes that we consider to be desirable.
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