Abstract:

Goals:
We analyze new digital uses (tablets) in an essential economic sector through a bachelor degree: manager in the building of individual houses, associating a University, a technical school and a professional board. The building family home market corresponds to 135,000 operations in France each year. This degree meets the needs of the profession which expresses the lack of qualified personnel able to meet the requirements of this profession, at the same time technician of the building, animator of its network of subcontractors and with true commercial skills (communication / negotiation) in his relationship with the customers. Still yesterday completely absent in the construction of family homes, uses of digital tablets are now emerging. The construction management is dematerialized and this must make the supervisor’s work more efficient to improve quality performance and relationships. The major challenge for the companies is to adapt their product offerings and optimize their production process, by controlling costs and ensuring the satisfaction of an increasingly demanding customers better informed. One of the keys lies in mastering digital technology and deploying tools and digital applications. In these degree for students - apprentices (students having also a contract of employment with a company), the skills approach has become essential. It is not only a question of acquiring knowledge but of acquiring professional skills in a work situation (learning by doing). In this idea, a professional reference system built with the professional board constitutes the pedagogic framework of this degree.

Positioning - Methodology:
The integration of digital tablets is realized through a project pedagogy in work situations. All project topics now incorporate a digital dimension. First, students-apprentices make an inventory of the current digital offer. They determine the most appropriate types of applications to answer the problems of their job. From a participatory observation perspective, we follow the students-apprentices in work situations and conduct interviews with them and with their apprenticeship supervisors in companies.
We position in the information-communication approach proposed by F. Bernard with the articulation of the issues of the link (relations, interactions), meaning and knowledge for action around a situation of activity determined by a mediator artifact (the digital tablet). These analyzes of activity situations may be studied considering the "situational and interactional semiotics" (Mucchielli) also integrating the innovation dimension into an approach of Competitive Intelligence as value creation (Bourret).

Results and perspectives:
This work in progress helps to better understand the digital dimension of the huge changes in an essential sector of the national economy and employment. It shows the importance of new pedagogical approaches integrating the digital dimension (tablet uses) in a situation of activity. It corresponds to the beginning of a cooperation with the professional teams to follow as closely as possible the evolution of a profession, using training situations as levers of innovation. The students are very motivated and the approach is very appreciated by the companies. To complete these first observations, we propose to follow the students in their activity situations (building of individual houses) throughout a year of training with their interactions with their companies’ supervisors.

Keywords:

Digital devices, building, apprenticeship, learning by doing, work situation, pedagocical innovation, services.