Internet in the classroom

Abstract

In this article I will defend the progressive use of the so-called learning and communication technologies (LCTs) in the school classrooms, understood as a privileged resource in educational innovation, never as an end in itself. But first, it is necessary to clarify some general questions regarding the role of technologies in contemporary societies. It is common to read phrases and writings that give technologies, especially the most recent ones, a fundamental role in social change, even historical change. There is talk of a new era, a new society, etc. Behind these statements, we sometimes find theories that are based on determining a direct relationship between technological and historical progress. Some defend what, in my opinion, is a naïve thought that considers, for example, that the Internet is in itself the cause of a great historical transformation, a transformation that underestimates in its disquisition the set of factors that really explain social change: economic, social, political, cultural dynamics, etc. These theories, which sometimes become ideologies, assume that technology will directly change society and individuals. This is what is stated by experts who put us on our guard against this technocratic ideology, which explains evolution and social transformation in such a schematic and unilateral way.