Œuvre dédiée à Alioune Camara; merci au Prof. Denis Dougnon de l’Université de Bamako pour le parrainage / Cette recherche examine comment et pourquoi les éducateurs en Afrique de l’Ouest, au Mali en particulier, s’approprient pédagogiquement les technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) et avec quels effets. L’appropriation consiste à intégrer, personnellement et dans son milieu, la nouveauté et à la mobiliser de façon stratégique pour répondre aux objectifs contextualisés, souvent en résistance au statu quo. Une méthodologie qualitative et des approches interprétatives ont permis de comprendre les significations que les éducateurs donnent à leur réalité et leurs expériences. Trente-et-une personnes ont été interviewées: 23 enseignants du primaire et du secondaire, six professeurs d’université, et deux gestionnaires. Les éducateurs ont assimilé les TIC jusqu’à ce qu’elles deviennent partie intégrante de leur être et de leur vie quotidienne. En adaptant les TIC à leur milieu, ils ont travaillé comme des agents culturels, jouant le rôle d’interface entre les TIC et la société. Les professeurs, en particulier, ont exprimé leur souhait d’utiliser les TIC pour faciliter et renforcer la participation africaine aux débats mondiaux et à la production scientifique, et pour changer la perception présente et future de l’Afrique et des Africains. Les éducateurs ont embrassé les TIC pour les possibilités de transformation qu’elles offrent. Des changements apparaissent dans les rapports entre enseignants et étudiants (plus d’interactivités), dans les salles de classes (plus d’échanges) et les contenus des cours (plus actualisés et diversifiés), suggérant que les TIC peuvent avoir un rôle de catalyseur dans l’évolution des pratiques pédagogiques, y compris dans des contextes où l’accès aux documents est difficile et où l’héritage du colonialisme se fait encore sentir. Les perspectives et les expériences des éducateurs utilisant les TIC dans l’éducation en Afrique peuvent enrichir la théorie, la pratique et la politique éducatives et permettre d’avoir une meilleure compréhension du concept d’appropriation comme processus de changement culturel. / This research investigates how and why educators in West Africa, in Mali in particular, pedagogically appropriate information and communication technologies (ICT) and with what effects. Appropriation involves integrating newness into one’s very being and mobilizing it strategically to meet contextualized objectives, often in resistance to the status quo. It is assumed that ICT use is shaped by the values and objectives of users as well as by the local and global hierarchies of the milieus in which they are used. Qualitative research methods and interpretive approaches revealed meanings educators give to their reality and experiences. Interviews were conducted with 31 persons: 23 primary through high school teachers, six university professors, and two administrators. As educators digested ICT, it became part and parcel of their beings and everyday lives. As they adapted it to their milieus, they worked as cultural agents, mediating between ICT and society. The professors in particular expressed desires to use ICT to facilitate and enhance African participation in global debates and scholarly production and to transform how Africa and Africans are projected and perceived. Educators harnessed ICT for its transformative possibilities. The changes apparent in student-teacher relations (more interactive) and classrooms (more dialogical) suggest that ICT can be a catalyst for pedagogical change, including in document-poor contexts and ones weighed down by legacies of colonialism. Learning from the perspectives and experiences of educators pioneering the use of ICT in education in Africa can inform educational theory, practice and policy and deepen understandings of the concept of appropriation as a process of cultural change.

A Educação a Distância tem significativa importância no contexto educacional brasileiro, sendo uma das apostas do Ministério da Educação para democratizar o acesso ao ensino superior, pela possibilidade de contribuir sensivelmente com a ampliação e, sobretudo, com a interiorização da oferta de educação em nosso país. A graduação a distância registrou em 2007, conforme último censo, crescimento de 80,7% em relação a 2006, contra 5,4% da educação presencial no mesmo período. É crescente o número de organizações educacionais interessadas em obter credenciamento para a oferta de ensino superior nesta modalidade. No entanto, esses números não garantem sobrevivência a todas as organizações envolvidas neste setor. Como em qualquer outro segmento, as instituições de ensino superior também sofrem com as mudanças que ocorrem no ambiente e precisam enfrentá-las desenvolvendo novas competências organizacionais que lhes confiram vantagens competitivas. Assim, torna-se essencial para as organizações educacionais o desenvolvimento e o aprimoramento de competências próprias que as diferenciem no processo concorrencial, possibilitando que elas se posicionem estrategicamente em diferentes momentos de sua trajetória. Para tanto, a necessidade de aprendizagem torna-se vital como um diferencial competitivo, frente à dinâmica movimentação concorrencial. O processo de aprendizagem, nessa realidade, significa o repensar das ações estratégicas da organização. No presente estudo, foram escolhidas instituições de ensino superior públicas e privadas que passaram por um processo de mudança, tendo em vista a oferta de ensino superior na modalidade a distância. O estudo teve por objetivos identificar quais foram as competências agregadas, como as organizações as desenvolveram; e quais dessas competências podem ser caracterizadas como distintivas, capazes de conferir vantagens competitivas às instituições e um benefício superior para os alunos. / Distance Learning has a paramount importance within the Brazilian educational context, and it is considered one of the main tools of the Ministry of Education to promote the democratization of access to higher education in the country, for it may help disseminate learning opportunities, particularly in the inland of Brazil. According to the latest census in 2007, distance graduation has shown an increase of 80.7% in relation to 2006, compared to 5.4% of presence learning during the same period. A growing number of educational institutions are applying for distance learning accreditation. However, the above figures do not ensure the survival of these institutions because, like any other segment, education is also affected by environmental changes, and must develop new organizational competencies, in order to become more competitive. Therefore, it is essential that the educational organizations develop and improve their own competencies, in order to distinguish themselves amongst their competitors and strategically position themselves in a changing market. Learning can make all the difference when it comes to face competition. The process of learning means rethinking the strategic actions of the organization. Two private higher education institutions that faced the new challenges of providing distance education were selected. This study aimed at identifying the competencies acquired for the offer of Distance Learning, how they were realised by the stakeholders, and which of these competencies can be characterized as distinctive, able to grant competitive advantages to the institutions and a superior benefit to the students

A Educação a Distância tem significativa importância no contexto educacional brasileiro, sendo uma das apostas do Ministério da Educação para democratizar o acesso ao ensino superior, pela possibilidade de contribuir sensivelmente com a ampliação e, sobretudo, com a interiorização da oferta de educação em nosso país. A graduação a distância registrou em 2007, conforme último censo, crescimento de 80,7% em relação a 2006, contra 5,4% da educação presencial no mesmo período. É crescente o número de organizações educacionais interessadas em obter credenciamento para a oferta de ensino superior nesta modalidade. No entanto, esses números não garantem sobrevivência a todas as organizações envolvidas neste setor. Como em qualquer outro segmento, as instituições de ensino superior também sofrem com as mudanças que ocorrem no ambiente e precisam enfrentá-las desenvolvendo novas competências organizacionais que lhes confiram vantagens competitivas. Assim, torna-se essencial para as organizações educacionais o desenvolvimento e o aprimoramento de competências próprias que as diferenciem no processo concorrencial, possibilitando que elas se posicionem estrategicamente em diferentes momentos de sua trajetória. Para tanto, a necessidade de aprendizagem torna-se vital como um diferencial competitivo, frente à dinâmica movimentação concorrencial. O processo de aprendizagem, nessa realidade, significa o repensar das ações estratégicas da organização. No presente estudo, foram escolhidas instituições de ensino superior públicas e privadas que passaram por um processo de mudança, tendo em vista a oferta de ensino superior na modalidade a distância. O estudo teve por objetivos identificar quais foram as competências agregadas, como as organizações as desenvolveram; e quais dessas competências podem ser caracterizadas como distintivas, capazes de conferir vantagens competitivas às instituições e um benefício superior para os alunos. / Distance Learning has a paramount importance within the Brazilian educational context, and it is considered one of the main tools of the Ministry of Education to promote the democratization of access to higher education in the country, for it may help disseminate learning opportunities, particularly in the inland of Brazil. According to the latest census in 2007, distance graduation has shown an increase of 80.7% in relation to 2006, compared to 5.4% of presence learning during the same period. A growing number of educational institutions are applying for distance learning accreditation. However, the above figures do not ensure the survival of these institutions because, like any other segment, education is also affected by environmental changes, and must develop new organizational competencies, in order to become more competitive. Therefore, it is essential that the educational organizations develop and improve their own competencies, in order to distinguish themselves amongst their competitors and strategically position themselves in a changing market. Learning can make all the difference when it comes to face competition. The process of learning means rethinking the strategic actions of the organization. Two private higher education institutions that faced the new challenges of providing distance education were selected. This study aimed at identifying the competencies acquired for the offer of Distance Learning, how they were realised by the stakeholders, and which of these competencies can be characterized as distinctive, able to grant competitive advantages to the institutions and a superior benefit to the students