Lessons from two dutch projects for the introduction of computers in schools

Abstract

The systematic introduction of computers in schools for general secondary education in The Netherlands started in the early 1980s. Initially, the Dutch government experimented in 1983 with a project in 100 lower general secondary schools limited in scope to gain experience with educational computer use (100-school project). In the period 1985–1989 the government implemented a second stimulation project focused at all lower secondary schools: New Information Technology in Secondary Education. This project consisted of the provision of hardware and courseware to all general secondary schools, organizing nationwide in-service teacher training, and the intensifying of software development. With respect to the 100-school project the question was whether there would be any differences in computer implementation and problems with computer use at schools in the 100-school project as compared to other schools which could only profit in the second promotional program. The question addressed for the second promotional program concerns the use of software packages and courseware which were provided to all schools for general education during the NIVO-project. An important conclusion for The Netherlands is, that the provision of hardware, software and in-service training was adequate to introduce computer education (called: information and computer literacy) as a new subject in nearly all lower secondary schools. But the set of stimulation activities does not seem to be adequate or sufficient to realize the integration of computer use in existing subjects.