This report published by the Institut national de la jeunesse et de l'éducation populaire (INJEP) looks back at the relationships that have been forged in the past between popular education and digital education" and questions the hypothesis of a "popular digital education" or a "digital popular education".
Its author, Emmanuel Porte, in charge of studies and research at the INJEP, is interested in the approach of associative actors in the digital world who display their intention to "popularize digital education" as well as that of more traditional actors in popular education "who integrate these practices by creating new spaces or by nourishing their methods with new collaborations.
The author traces a genealogy of this relationship between popular education and digital.
Popular media education
"Very early on, the popular education movements accompanied their public in the appropriation of new means of communication. This is the case of radio, cinema, television or NICTs, or more recently of web-TV or radio. All these activities are based on a practice that is first and foremost turned towards the contents and their critical dimension. They participate in a social and political reading posing the new media as potential levers of the emancipation of the individual: access to information, production of a clean word, acquisition of collective experience, possibility of a widening of the worlds and social circles. The use by the actors of the popular education of the media, then of the new technologies was made in the search of a formation to the citizenship which combines the collective and individual dimensions by anchoring them in the times of leisure. The militants of popular education have thus had "a pioneering role in the use and appropriation of the media". There is thus a strong and ancient tradition among the actors of popular education and the professionals of animation who have invested the digital question through the media: video production, editing, mash-up, content production, etc.Scientific and technical culture
In this genealogy, the author addresses the scientific and technical culture movementThis results from the hybridization of two approaches: the bringing together of scientists (notably physicists) with actors from the cultural, educational and socio-educational spheres and the initiatives of activists from scientific leisure clubs who, via the Palais de la découverte, will strengthen their links with youth and popular education movements. "These actors recognize themselves in "scientific animation" developing, among other things, training courses sanctioned within the framework of the specializations of the certificate of aptitude for the functions of animation (BAFA). The dynamic thus created nourishes a rapprochement between various logics of discovery of sciences through practice backed by an affirmation of culture as having a scientific dimension. Thus, spreading a scientific culture and knowledge by relying on pedagogies and principles of exchange nourished by the experiences of popular education feeds from the 1980s onwards a territorial network of activities turned towards young people". The author thus returns to the links that were forged, from the end of the 1970s, between popular education and computer science through the Microtel clubs, born with the help of the PTT and the National Center for Telecommunications Studies (CNET). The computer phenomenon appears in this context of the 1980s "as having a double characteristic. On the one hand, it constitutes a new knowledge. On the other hand, it is apprehended as a potential lever for access to expanded knowledge. These two poles are decisive to understand how the actors of popular education have appropriated the digital stakes between technical and cultural logics... Far from wanting to impose a technical vision of things, these workshops will try to be a place of exchange and sharing of knowledge. As for the computer knowledge itself, it will be characterized by the concern to promote a real professional qualification and to encourage concrete achievements.
The actors of popular education going digital
These are often old popular education movements that develop activities or training that progressively integrate digital issues. This is the case of the D-Clics numériques program, a project coordinated by the Ligue de l'enseignement in association with the Francas, the CEMEA, Animafac, Jets d'encre, the Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires (CRI) and the Canopé network. The objective is to consider digital technology as a challenge for educational actors, which must allow "all children and young people to have the necessary resources to become critical actors of their daily practices". We find the historical objectives of the field of popular education in its relationship to technology, culture and media: the discovery of computer skills and programming (coding, robotics ...), the digital as a tool for artistic and cultural creativity (including photo and digital video), the digital, creative vector of expression of children and youth (web radios, online newspapers, education in social networks)."The idea here is to train facilitators in educational work with and through digital technology, based on thematic training materials. Subtitled "discover, decipher, disseminate", the program's training courses are based on the traditions of media education and scientific and technical culture, but add objectives and principles that resonate with more recent issues.Digital actors going towards popular education
The author reports here on the work of the association Framasoft. " Coming from the educational world, this network defines itself as doing "popular education in free software", by devoting itself mainly to free software and to the promotion of its uses. Being at the same time a place of orientation, information, news, exchanges and projects, the association has imposed itself as a cornerstone of the promotion of free software in the French-speaking world.Most of its members are not computer scientists. The association is rather made up of librarians, primary and secondary school teachers and university professors, and is aimed above all at a public that does not know about Free Software and is looking for alternatives to GAFAM (Google Apple Facebook Amazon Microsoft).Actors in networks
These two categories of actors are not compartmentalized. "The professional and voluntary contributors of these initiatives meet in a multitude of networks. These networks are organized around meetings (the world meetings of free software, the conferences on digital mediation, forums, etc.), but they are also structured on a variety of scales (local, regional, national, Francophone, international).These networks of actors are very diverse in their structure and combine popular education and digital technology, relying as much on actors from associations, local authorities, youth services or local initiative networks.The Educpopnum collective, created by local actors in 2011, illustrates the exchanges that are taking place between these two categories of actors. "Around a core group of associations (Les Petits débrouillards, Rurart, la Bêta-pi), the regional directorate of youth, sports and social cohesion (DRJSCS) and the regional youth information center (CRIJ) of Poitou-Charentes, the collective has set itself the goal of creating a new space for exchange through the organization of conferences on popular education 2.0.
Actors such as D-clics numérique, Framasoft, Educpopnum are in regular contact and hybridize their practices."Framasoft is regularly solicited as an association by actors of popular education or the associative world. Their tools (Framadate, Framapiaf, Framatube, etc.) are widely used by educational actors and those of the social and solidarity economy. D-Clics numérique illustrates a process of opening to reflections and tools coming from the Open Source cultures integrated to the training objectives of the animators. Finally, and these are increasingly important actors, local networks of actors are being structured around new spaces (third places, fablabs, etc.) in resonance with the deployment of digital mediation.
Mutation of the places
The development of digital technology has led to the emergence of new places, often called "third places". " The question of the places and spaces in which activities are organized is a question that has crossed popular education over the long term. "The question of the places and spaces in which activities are organized is a question that has crossed popular education in the long term. "Dedicating spaces to young people as well as bringing young people into existing spaces is a long-standing concern of the networks.Some actors in youth policies or popular education have understood the potential scope of the emergence of "third places". " Spaces of valorization of collaboration and self-taught knowledge, the places of the crossing between popular education and digital are also places of culture in the heart of the territories. In terms of practices, these new spaces have led to new, less "occupational" uses that shake up established practices: the multiplication of manufacturing workshops with the emergence of 3D printers and robotics for the general public, dedicated spaces in community centers, youth clubs, libraries or centers for scientific and technical culture, etc.
Popular education and digital mediation
The emergence of digital mediation as a sector of activity is the consequence of the diversification of actors, places and practices that appeared with the digital public spaces (EPN) and cyberbases in the 2000s. A certain number of these EPNs were hosted within structures that were partly related to popular education (youth information points, social centers, municipal multimedia spaces, activity centers, development centers, associations, etc.). "As actors of the link between popular education and digital technology, the EPNs have also gradually developed activities related to local digital manufacturing technologies via "fablabs" or digital manufacturing laboratories. They have also integrated "infolabs" to support the creation of new services based on public data.The idea is not so much to develop specifically digital skills as to develop open and territorialized mediation capacities that rely on digital tools and approaches. "The emergence of a gradually professionalized sector raises questions for the animation sector, which had itself become professionalized in previous decades. Beyond the questions of employment or working conditions, it is the educational posture that is questioned. What type of citizenship do the practices of the actors of third places support? To which public is it addressed? In what way does it question popular education rather than animation?
Popular education beyond youth
While many popular education actors have focused their practices on a young audience, digital practices have led to the development of much more intergenerational approaches. The author points out here "a balancing act between two practical poles among the actors of popular education, between an approach to digital technology focused on the construction of a critical mind, often dedicated to a young audience, and an approach that refers more to the factory, to the discovery through technical practice, allowing more and more intergenerational. Very often, the actors try to find a balance between these two poles which remain different ways of approaching their profession ".In this sense, digital technology " challenges the certainties of educational actors and youth professionals. Very often, digital activities mobilize a young public, but are not limited to it. If we consider the third places, fablabs or resource centers that have developed over the last few years, we can see that these new projects do not adopt a specifically youthful approach. Young people are present, but what gathers around the project is the collective dynamic, the inclusion in the territory and the potential for renewal of governance offered through new ways of doing things, new ways of thinking about citizenship.
Collective dynamics, communities and governance
The use of new tools leads to questioning and then to organizational changes that affect both the functioning of groups and the organization of debate. " Far from the technicist discourse on "civic techs" which could give the illusion of a mutation by the tools, we rather see mutations based on principles of horizontality being reinforced with digital tools. The community takes precedence over the representatives, at least in part, in the aspirations for the renewal of the exercise of citizenship within the movements.It is a question of "doing things together" rather than "doing everything together". "The main issue lies in the definition of the modalities of the action, its rhythm, its visibility and its diffusion: "For these reasons, one understands better the value that the action takes with the digital: it does not constitute only the occasion of the political expression, but more and more the political expression itself. In this respect, it raises important questions for popular education as a proposal for emancipation. Networking and sharing are moved to the heart of the process.
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