Jacques Hebenstreit (1926-2020) was a leading figure in  French educational computing from the 1960s onwards.

He was one of the key figures in the first experiment to introduce computers into high schools (the 58 high schools experiment) in 1970.

At the École supérieure d'électricité (SUPELEC), he was instrumental in the development of the Langage symbolique d'enseignement (LSE), the first vector in the creation of educational software and the learning of programming.

From the 1970s onwards, he also led action-research groups on simulation in the experimental sciences, conceived as a means of gaining access to intermediate levels of abstraction. Right up until his retirement, he remained a pioneer of original and often visionary ideas.

In particular, in the 1980s, at a time when public policies were developing computerization in schools, he wrote penetrating analyses of the benefits for learning of computer-assisted activities (XAO), in which computing is a new way of analyzing and formulating problems, thus tending to modify all areas of human activity. This position, shared with other pioneers such as Claude Pair and Maurice Nivat, led him to express reservations about the introduction of computer science as a new second-degree discipline in the context of the times.

He also served for a long time in the IFIP TC3, représenting France.

An intellectual committed to action, he helped inspire researchers and practitioners, not only in France, but also in international associations concerned with computer science in education, such as the International Federation For Information Processing (IFIP). After his retirement in 1991, he decided to devote himself to other intellectual activities, still taking a critical approach to the evolution of society, but taking a step back from what had been his professional activity.

Although educational innovation continues, despite the creation of a computer science discipline at high school level, schools are struggling to teach computer science, while new activities are developing outside the school, sometimes at its interface with families and the commercial sector, which are increasing problem-solving capacities, restricting individual action and exacerbating social fractures.

This tribute conference will analyze the movements underway in society and schools since the late 1970s, and examine the relevance and legacy of J. Hebenstreit's thinking.