From the Square in Front of the Faculty of Philosophy in Braga to Rue de Sèvres in Paris.

Tiago Azevedo Ramanho
Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University – Braga

The current era raises significant doubts about the best way to conduct education. The range of resources available for learning is so diverse that it is not always easy to determine the appropriate extent of their use. The questions keep coming up: Should we abandon handwriting in favor of typing exclusively on computers? Should physical books be replaced by e-books? Will we shift from in-person to online education? Will we replace teachers with artificial intelligence “tutors”? These are questions of method that compound other, more fundamental and traditional issues that are ever-recurring: should education be based on those disciplines that help us question the meaning, purpose, and vocation of human existence, or, on the contrary, should we stake everything on the early teaching of “programming,” ideally starting in preschool? Should we question the purpose of technology, or simply expand our mastery of technical skills? The fact that there is no linear path in history—and that the answers to these questions are not one-sided—is evident in the way that positive responses to some of these questions have been followed by more nuanced answers, already tempered by doubt.

Recently, the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences (FFCS) at the Portuguese Catholic University (Braga Regional Center) provided an example of timely discernment regarding the appropriate use of these new technological tools in the service of an education focused on the “fundamentals” of human development. As an institution entrusted to the Society of Jesus, the FFCS is part of the Kircher Network, a network of Jesuit colleges and universities located in Europe and the Middle East (including the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon) that takes its name from the Jesuit scholar Fr. Athanasius Kircher.

Taking advantage of the synergies resulting from such a network, certain online courses offered by member institutions have been made available to students enrolled at other member institutions. In the catalog of courses offered, the programs in the fields of study where the Society of Jesus excels naturally stand out: Philosophy and Theology; the connections between these fields; and dialogue with major issues of the contemporary world. Courses are primarily offered in English (even when provided by institutions in non-English-speaking countries) and French; recently, they have also been offered in Spanish. The catalog can be found on the network’s website (kirchernetwork.org).

Each interested party naturally based their decision on their own schedule, which allowed them to assess how well the range of proposed courses aligned with their respective areas of interest, study, and research. I did the same. In my case, this choice led me to take a course offered by the Jesuit institution based in Paris, the Facultés Loyola (specifically, the course *Langage et vérité* (“Language and Truth”), taught by Camille de Villeneuve). Although physically so far apart, the distances between Praça da Faculdade de Filosofia in Braga—where the FFCS is located—and Rue de Sèvres in Paris—where that other institution is situated—suddenly vanished, thanks to modern means of communication.

The course followed an educational model well-suited to the medium on which it was based: participants are provided in advance with study materials—pre-recorded lessons in short videos, complete with written transcripts, as well as recommended reading lists—which they work through individually by submitting regular written reflections, to be evaluated and commented on, and through discussion in a weekly synchronous session, during which participants have the opportunity to engage in dialogue based on the reflections and readings completed over the previous week. In short, a combination of the fundamental activities of the humanities: listening, reading, writing, and engaging in dialogue.

Here is an excellent example of the intelligent use of technology, put at the service of human beings (and not the other way around): Here, technology is used to provide an opportunity for genuine interaction, where people are addressed by their first names—something that, incidentally, doesn’t always happen even in large-scale in-person education—without resorting to the easy solution of labeling the mere exposure of each individual to the noisy silence of chaotic digital spaces as “distance learning,” without a single word to support, correct, or encourage them. Remote connection, yes, but with genuine human relationships.

This recent initiative should be welcomed. It should also be appreciated. Times of crisis are, as is well known, times for discernment—times when we are called upon to determine, with clarity, what to change, what to transform, what to preserve, and what to renew. Here we see a model exercise in discernment regarding what our own strengths are—what our own identity is—and how to put our own talents to good use.

An awareness of one’s own identity: a multi-century, multilingual educational network rooted in different locations. It is an educational network with clearly distinct characteristics—identity traits that, when embraced rather than diluted, enable it to offer something that other institutions, with different missions and structures, are not equipped to provide. Putting one’s own talents to good use: providing, from each of the nodes that make up this network—that is, from each of the institutions that comprise it—access to the network as a whole—that is, access to the others—so that those who enter a higher education institution entrusted to the Society of Jesus find there not the end of their journey, but a means to discover surprising new places. In this way, we ensure educational pathways that, while firmly rooted in local realities, nevertheless constitute solid platforms for access to the outside world.

We hope for the continued success of this program, and that it may serve as a stimulus for new and increasingly robust forms of networked collaboration.

Note: "Text written according to the rules in effect prior to the 1990 Orthographic Agreement"