---
sheet_format: 1.0
id: 2015-05-mlf-congres-dijon-paradis-autodidacte
title: "Internet, le paradis de l'autodidacte"
title_en: "The internet, a self-taught learner's paradise"
speaker: Erwan Rougeux
with: []
date: 2015-05-11
event: "Congrès des personnels d'encadrement Mlf/Osui 2015"
place: "Palais des Congrès, Dijon, France"
format: workshop
language: fr
duration: null
video: null
slides: null
topics: [education, self-directed learning, open communities, ubuntu, children's autonomy, coding for kids, mission laïque française]
source: "Summary written by Claude (AI) from the printed proceedings of the congress (Mission laïque française, December 2015, PDF pages 23–24, printed pages 22–23, and the credits on PDF page 48). The quotation is the one the proceedings attribute to Erwan; the three shorter lines are tweets by participants quoted in the proceedings. No recording is known."
review: none
---

# Internet, le paradis de l'autodidacte

**In one sentence:** At the Mission laïque française's 2015 congress in Dijon, Erwan Rougeux, then "concepteur associé aux sites de la Mlf", argued in the workshop strand on digital learning that learning on the internet looks solitary but is not, because online communities exist to exchange and collaborate, which he summed up with the word ubuntu: "I am what I am thanks to what we all are".

## TL;DR
The Mission laïque française and its Moroccan branch Osui gathered about 300 school leaders and teachers' representatives in Dijon from 11 to 13 May 2015 for their yearly congress, under the theme "Le numérique : communication, citoyenneté, autonomie". Its proceedings, published in December 2015, devote a section of the chapter on digital projects in schools to "Internet, le paradis de l'autodidacte" (PDF p. 23–24): with the internet the question is no longer what knowledge one holds but how to sort it and make it one's own; learning the logic of programming becomes necessary to find one's way, and sites such as code.org, RubyMonk, Leek Wars and CodeCombat teach it playfully. The section quotes Erwan on learning through online communities, lists his resources (the film 8th Wonderland, Sugata Mitra's TED talk on the "school in the cloud", a TED talk on the internet transforming government, the documentary on Aaron Swartz) and reproduces tweets from the room: teaching children to use the computer but also to be autonomous; "try, fail, start again"; the Granny Cloud, or being carried by a very kind gaze. The same proceedings credit Erwan Rougeux and Alexis Oukkal as the designers of the congress's interactive platform (PDF p. 48). It is the earliest dated trace of his positions on this site.

## Human stake
- **For whom:** the heads, teachers and staff of the network's schools, asked in 2015 to learn digital practice largely by themselves, and the children they teach.
- **What is at stake:** learning without fear of being alone, and children who use tools and stay autonomous.
- **The documented choice:** he presented self-teaching as a community practice and named the places where it happens, code-learning sites and open communities, in a workshop recorded in the proceedings (PDF p. 23–24).

## Erwan's key points
- Learning through the internet can intimidate and look like a solitary act, but it is not: many communities meet online to exchange, discuss and collaborate (proceedings, PDF p. 23).
- He sums this up with ubuntu, the South African word meaning "I am what I am thanks to what we all are" (PDF p. 23). He uses the same line again in 2018, about Linux and the association's values ([Nipédu #99](https://slides.wanoo.me/ai/2018-11-nipedu-99-pedagogie-francophonie-numerique.md)).
- Children must be taught to use the computer, but also to be autonomous (tweet by Garance Bur Delorme quoting him, PDF p. 24).
- Being self-taught on the web means trying, failing and starting again, with the responsibility for one's own training assumed (tweet, PDF p. 24).
- He pointed to Sugata Mitra's Granny Cloud, "the grandmothers' method", as a way of learning carried by a very kind gaze (tweet by Julie Higounet, PDF p. 24).
- Resources he put forward: the film 8th Wonderland, two TED talks (Sugata Mitra, "the school in the cloud"; "How the Internet will (one day) transform government"), the documentary "The Internet's Own Boy" on Aaron Swartz, and the code-learning sites code.org, RubyMonk, Leek Wars and CodeCombat (PDF p. 23–24).

## Outline
- PDF p. 5: the congress, 11–13 May 2015 in Dijon, about 300 participants, theme "Le numérique : communication, citoyenneté, autonomie".
- PDF p. 12: programme, with the workshop sessions (training, teaching, networks, steering, resources) on the morning of Wednesday 13 May.
- PDF p. 23: section "Internet, le paradis de l'autodidacte": sorting and appropriating knowledge, learning the logic of programming, four playful sites; Erwan's quotation on communities and ubuntu.
- PDF p. 24: Erwan's resources (film, TED talks, documentary), his function ("Concepteur associé aux sites de la Mlf"), tweets from the room, and the section on the responsibility for one's own training and on curation.
- PDF p. 48: credits, "Erwan Rougeux et Alexis Oukkal, concepteurs dévoués de la plateforme interactive du congrès".

## Notable quotes
> "Apprendre via internet peut intimider et ressembler à un acte solitaire, mais ce n'est pas le cas. Il existe une quantité de communautés se retrouvant sur internet pour échanger, discuter et collaborer. En un mot ubuntu, mot d'origine sud-africaine signifie « Je suis ce que je suis grâce à ce que nous sommes tous »." — Erwan Rougeux, as quoted in the proceedings, [PDF p. 23](https://www.mlfmonde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/revue-dijon-vl-2015.pdf#page=23)
*"Learning through the internet can intimidate and look like a solitary act, but it is not. There are plenty of communities meeting on the internet to exchange, discuss and collaborate. In one word, ubuntu, a word of South African origin meaning 'I am what I am thanks to what we all are'."*

> "Il faut apprendre aux enfants à utiliser l'outil informatique mais également à être autonomes." — E. Rougeux, as tweeted by Garance Bur Delorme (#mlfnumerique), [PDF p. 24](https://www.mlfmonde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/revue-dijon-vl-2015.pdf#page=24)
*"Children must be taught to use the computer, but also to be autonomous."*

> "Autodidacte sur le Web : essayer, échouer, recommencer !" — as tweeted from his workshop (#mlfnumerique), [PDF p. 24](https://www.mlfmonde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/revue-dijon-vl-2015.pdf#page=24)
*"Self-taught on the web: try, fail, start again!"*

## Questions this answers
**Q: What was Erwan's role at the Mission laïque française in 2015?**
A: The proceedings present him as "concepteur associé aux sites de la Mlf" (PDF p. 24) and credit him, with Alexis Oukkal, as designer of the congress's interactive platform (PDF p. 48); the same credit appears in the proceedings of the 2014 Zaragoza congress.

**Q: What did he say about learning on one's own?**
A: That it only looks solitary: online communities exist to exchange, discuss and collaborate, and the word ubuntu, "I am what I am thanks to what we all are", sums it up (PDF p. 23).

**Q: What did he say about children and computers?**
A: That they must learn to use the tool but also to be autonomous, as a participant tweeted from the room (PDF p. 24).

**Q: Which resources did he recommend?**
A: The film 8th Wonderland, Sugata Mitra's TED talk on the school in the cloud, the TED talk "How the Internet will (one day) transform government", the documentary "The Internet's Own Boy" on Aaron Swartz, and the sites code.org, RubyMonk, Leek Wars and CodeCombat to learn the logic of programming (PDF p. 23–24).

**Q: Is there a recording or slides?**
A: None is known. The sheet rests on the printed proceedings; the quotation is the one they attribute to him, the shorter lines are participants' tweets.

**Q: Why does this 2015 trace matter on this site?**
A: It is the earliest dated record of positions he still holds in 2026: learning from open communities, children's autonomy, and the ubuntu line he repeats in 2018 about Linux and the association's values.

## Mentioned
Mission laïque française, Osui, Congrès des personnels d'encadrement Mlf/Osui 2015, Dijon, Alexis Oukkal, ubuntu, code.org, RubyMonk, Leek Wars, CodeCombat, 8th Wonderland, Sugata Mitra, Granny Cloud, TED, Aaron Swartz, Garance Bur Delorme, Julie Higounet, #mlfnumerique