Educational logistics absorb a substantial share of the budget and resources allocated to education. We're talking about clocks and heating, as well as the management of premises, their layout, supplies, IT systems and transport. The temperature of the premises must be optimal, the toilets clean, the air fresh, the security assured, the equipment functional, the personnel at their posts, the communications fluid, etc., etc.
All this to create a favorable context for study... And no two administrations do it in the same way, which is a good thing, because environments are different everywhere, and we have to take this into account: urban or rural, dense neighborhoods or suburbs, highly immigrant or more homogeneous environments, modern or heritage schools, and so on. But despite relative flexibility, in many situations teachers' professional culture clashes with a standardized administrative culture, sometimes even in the form of a law applied to the letter.
Aren't there essential foundations to be respected, such as the priority given to learning? How can some schools still be so depressing?
Active, outdoor, hybrid and inverted classrooms, laboratories, libraries, workshops and study environments are all based on logistics that should accompany activities, not constrain them. From primary school to university, open-ended forms of teaching call into question the division into fixed periods, grouping by age or the intrusion of distracting or dehumanizing technologies.
Many years ago, I imagined the ideal study environment to be one where transmission was ensured by media, and where the bulk of activities consisted of laboratories, lectures with recognized players, demonstrations, periods of practice, training, discussion; in short, time for qualifying and integrating the data being taught. With artificial intelligence, this critical phase appears even more necessary and calls for a reorganization of both pedagogy and supporting logistics.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
Illustration : Egonetix_xyz - Pixabay
