20 years of history

In 1992 we organised the I European Conference on Information Technology in Education: a critical insight. We wanted to respond to the growing interest in the developments of Information Technology (IT) and their possible uses for improving teaching and learning processes.

In 2002, the profound changes brought about by the pressure of certain political and economic policies, and the increased use of Information and Communication Techologies (ICT) in society in general, inspired us to organise a second congress. This meeting, like the one hosted in 1992, aimed to analyse, in a dispassionate manner, the foundational elements of the cultural, social and technological environment where education takes place and from which the theory and the praxis of education and citizenship is constructed.

Ten years later, twenty after the first conference, the digitalization of society, a process intertwined with predominantly neoliberal political, economic and cultural perspectives, has been on the rise. Phenomena like the Web 2.0 and social networks have produced a variety of both pessimistic and optimistic positions regarding the present and the future of education and society.

During these years, education at all levels, and the social conditions for most people have not improved at the same rate as digital technology. In fact, the drop-out rate in formal education, involving a large number of students from secondary school and the university, and the widening gap between the experiences, life and values ​​of young people and adults, is beginning to be the source of a cause for alarm. Digital technologies are cast as a solution to today's educational needs, or alternately as a problem that needs to be resolved.

In this context and situation, it seems appropriate to re-offer a space where we may reflect together, in a conscientious and critical manner, on the processes related to the use of ICT in education, and what might be its role in the creation of knowledge.