Obviously a few far from secondary distinctions should be made: many of our students do not have access to the Internet. And there is another very important concept: online instruction cannot take the place of traditional classroom teaching.

Let’s start here, then, with what is perhaps the main conceptual issue. I have spent over a decade experimenting with and trying out every possible form of remote knowledge sharing. At this point it is plausible to say that the new medium (a class on Zoom) has not replaced its predecessor (a class in a classroom). At best, under the best conditions, it can be a supplementary action, of great usefulness and extraordinary multiplication of value (for the traditional medium, which should not be lost).

An example. When Johannes Gutenberg developed movable type, people began to print many books: this was a quantum leap (in terms of media history). The previous medium (the manuscript) is a very costly object. The new technology reduced costs greatly, so knowledge could reach many more people. Let’s imagine being in a medieval university, when printed books began to arrive: it was an amazing thrill, because the possibilities and horizons opened up in an incredible way. Nevertheless (and obviously), the book could not take the place of a traditional lecture: it was simply an auxiliary tool. What changed in the university (as an institution) with the arrival of books printed with movable type? In banal terms, it revolutionized and boosted the function of the library (or libraries). Gutenberg’s movable type (and the subsequent refinement by Aldus Manutius) made great libraries flourish, open to many people. Apart from this, where teaching was concerned (with a lecturer and a class), nothing changed.

It is the same for us. The chance to conduct online classes, the possibility of inviting special guests from anywhere in the world, the interactive and horizontal work with students (in remote teaching you cannot have the top-down mode typical of our usual courses), form a new device that supplements an entire series of already existing teaching tools.

A good school has talented teachers and an excellent library, well-organized laboratories, the possibility of travel and visiting professors. It can then organize internships or work/study programs, and many other things. Sports, social activities, lodgings for students arriving from elsewhere, lots of different facets. So today that school has tested, in the field, the usefulness of a new completely digital tool, to round out its overall educational system.

The world that awaits us will not be all white or all black. As always, it will be colored with tones of gray. We will not be closed off in our homes forever, but we will not return to the usual routine, either. We will exist in an intermediate way. In September we may return to school wearing masks, with separated seating, perhaps on double shifts. But there could also be a return of the virus, plunging us back into lockdown and remote education. On the other hand, the whole problem might vanish (as in the case of the Spanish flu) from one day to the next. In that case, we will remove our masks and push our seats back together. In short, it will be a future in which we can join new systems to the existing traditional methods. The new paradigm has been absorbed, the cognitive leap has been made: turning back is not just impossible, but also senseless.

It is true that “video killed the radio star,” but that famous song by the Buggles does not apply, in this case. Nothing is getting killed or erased this time around. We’ve simply gotten a bigger toolbox.