TEACHING USES AND STRATEGIES OF ADAPTATION IN A VIRTUAL EDUCATIONAL SPACE Context of experimentation Following the numerous school hook-ups to the Internet broad-band network, the CRDP of Brittany (Centre Régional de Documentation Pédagogique), in partnership with the Regional Council and the Academy Vice-chancellorship, have set up a teaching experimentation entitled "TICÉO" aiming at developing the use of documentary video resources at school. Originally, four programs were proposed on the TICÉO portal: · Eduvisites: online tours of natural, patrimonial and industrial sites · Gens de Bretagne: a gallery of video portraits of people living in Brittany · Océanimages: a bank of seascape pictures usable in class, for visualization and montage · lesite.tv: an interactive educational television service proposed by France 5 and Scérén. The "TICEO" project, which began in 2004, has unfolded in 4 stages: - the pre-experimental phase: programs were tested separately by classes - the experimental phase: these programs converged within an educational portal of digital online resources: the TICEO portal. 36 schools (nursery schools, primary schools, junior schools) tried out the new interface coordinated by the CRDP of Brittany during this period. - the phase of pre-generalization. Currently in progress, the operation was extended to nearly 100 schools over the four Breton departments. In parallel the interface took on new programs as well as new collaboration functionalities. - the phase of generalization should logically lead to the integration of the TICEO internet portal into the Virtual Education Project of the Academy of Brittany, currently under development for access to all schools. Study Frame Our research, undertaken by the CREAD, started at the beginning of the second phase during the gathering of the programs and the opening of virtual TICEO portal (January 2004). This first research phase aimed at exploring the uses developing within each one of these programs, and overall around the new virtual portal, while being concerned more precisely in the teaching practices and the forms of organization induced by the new device, and set up by the teachers. A first report was published at the end of this first phase. The second research phase relates to pre-generalization which is still in progress. Just like the preceding phase, the first months were largely devoted to the implementation and the stabilization of the technical devices in the new schools. The new study of the uses focuses more on the process of innovation. Theoretical frame The initial exploratory phase was concerned more particularly with the development of the first uses and their inventory. The second phase focuses more on understanding the processes at work and their logic of deployment. Among the mobilized theoretical tools, the sociology of uses is privileged. Indeed it has proposed, for about twenty years, to break away from the "techno-determinist" approaches in order to clarify at ground-work level the development of the uses in situations of technological innovation. This methodological posture makes it at first sight possible to better analyse and understand the strategies of adaptation of these devices, even those of diversion, which the actors resort to within the framework of the implementation of their professional practices. In addition the sociology of technological innovation is also requested to tackle the questions of how both individuals and groups adapt to and integrate these new digital content devices, and how they reorganize school space and time. These are the first steps of a transitional school form symbolized by what is called from now on virtual education fields.

The initial exploratory phase of this research was concerned more particularly with the development of the first uses and their inventory. The second phase focuses more on understanding the processes at work and the strategies of adaptation of these devices, even those of diversion, which the actors resort to within the framework of the implementation of their professional practices.