FRANCE: Universities lag 'digitally native' students

French universities must urgently catch up with information and communication technologies if they are to satisfy the higher education demands of the advancing generation of 'digitally native' students. Although initiatives have been established in recent years to help them develop the necessary infrastructure, only a few universities have so far made satisfactory progress. But this lag is due more to systemic and human shortcomings than to technological inadequacies.

This is the situation in France according to Henri Isaac, lecturer at Paris-Dauphine University, in a report L'université numérique (The Digital University) commissioned by Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, and submitted earlier this year.

Isaac's inquiry came at a time when figures showed 57% of French households had a computer and 47% had internet access, mostly high-speed, while nearly a third had video-game consoles. Unsurprisingly, the young were the greatest users: they included 74% of 11-15-year-olds and 84% of 16-24-year-olds, compared with 49% of 50-64-year-olds.

These figures confirmed the existence of a "digitally native generation", said Isaac. "Children of this generation were born into their environment with video games, portable games, online games with multiple players, mobile phones, mp3 players, high-speed internet, instant messages..."

At the strategic level, Pécresse observed in her commissioning letter: "In the context of globalisation of higher education, it appears that France shows a certain delay compared with other Western countries in the access it provides to online courses and in offering distance education.

"At the very time when mastering information and communication technologies seems increasingly to be an element of a nation's competitiveness, this delay in the digitisation of higher studies risks impeding France's development in coming years."

The development of e-learning becomes even more crucial following President Nicolas Sarkozy's expressed determination to make France a "great digital power", and the appointment of a Secretary of State, Eric Besson, charged with formulating a plan along these lines for 2012.

Isaac's recommendations were aimed primarily at preparing students for employment in the 'network knowledge society', a target that first meant integrating universities into the digital networks. But he found only a minority of universities had succeeded in developing 'high performance digital work environments' which enabled all their students to enrol online and access teaching resources such as courses, exercises and tutorials.

Others had developed multi-service student cards giving access to services such as university canteens, libraries and buses. Overall, however, the university system needed to go much further and remove obstacles to digital development.

Isaac outlined the problems in La Lettre de l'Education, published by Le Monde. Strategically, he said, "university presidents don't include digitisation in their overall policies. Students arriving today on campus are all 'digital natives', babies of the digital age. They grew up with the internet and are used to handling new technologies. For them, it is natural to access their courses and other education resources on line".

University presidents should improve the quality of such services for students to ensure their success in their university careers; this would "also contain a strong element of attraction, especially for courses students turn their backs on, such as science".

Another setback was that teaching and research staff (enseignants-chercheurs) lacked relevant initial and continuing training. "During the recruitment of a teacher, and during their career, only research activities count. So teachers will never feel encouraged to take [in-service] pedagogical training. This increasingly concerns the use of new technologies, and these are radically changing the way teachers transmit knowledge to their students," said Isaac.

Also, only face-to-face teaching counted towards a teacher's service time. "Distance courses and exercises, via a blog for example, are not considered working hours for teachers."

For students, computer equipment was expensive and only 35% of students had a laptop, said Isaac. "That must be put right by providing computer rooms, which are cruelly lacking today." But he said students must also be taught how to operate their university's equipment; introduction of C2I, a new computer and internet certificate for all undergraduates, would help them adapt to new usages.

If France is to bridge its digital gap, Isaac says it needs to:

* Make "100% of educational documents available for 100% of students", by giving students access to all teaching materials - such as course work, exercises, multimedia resources - in digital format; and access to equipment, wherever they are based, and at all levels of study.
* Check relevance of existing ministry resources and adapt where necessary so they are of use to teachers and students.
* Develop distance learning to cope with the ever-growing demand, allowing university presidents to adapt conditions of employment to authorise lecturers to carry out all or part of their teaching duties through distance systems.
* Develop a 'digital heritage' in universities, storing and making accessible digital libraries;
* Make senior university managers with responsibility for e-learning aware of the strategic importance of the digital age.
* Provide improved, relevant training for academic staff.
* Continue equipping universities with appropriate infrastructure, and increase off-campus internet access, for example in libraries or through Wifi.
* Make access to teaching materials easier for disabled students.
* Introduce and enforce strict anti-plagiarism rules.
* Generalise the use of multi-service electronic student cards.
* Improve student democracy through electronic voting.

Henri Isaac's report is accessible at: www.education.gouv.fr
For State Secretary Eric Besson's report:
www.assisesdunumerique.fr

jane.marshall@uw-news.com