Skolan och informationstekniken – en fallstudie av grundskola och gymnasium i Alingsås

This paper is the second of six case studies in a research project ”The school and information- and communication technology (ICT)”. This study is taking place in the municipality of Alingsås. The results of the study show that the technical infrastructure for ICT has been improved by the purchase of new computers and the creation of a functioning intranet in the schools. It also seems as if the knowledge and ability of the teachers regarding ICT has been improved, even though there are big differences between teachers and schools. It is however less obvious how ICT has been integrated in the core educational activities. The teachers claim that ICT should be a pedagogical tool, i.e. that pedagogy itself should condition the use of ICT and not the reverse. Another contributing factor is that the ICT-investments have been organised as projects, where project leaders often have become key persons in the development process. This means that many schools today have problems sustaining the ICT-level when some of the project leaders have left and there are no additional funds. However, it seems as if there is a willingness among the teachers to carry on with some of the earlier projects but in a smaller scale. Another conclusion is that ICT has become very much integrated in the administrative work of the teachers in the line with the further decentralisation of the school organisation. The long term effects of the ICTinvestments very muck depends upon the ability of the municipality to invest further funds to sustain and if possible develop the current ICT-level in the schools.