The Role of Technology
Development in Swedish Schools
Multimedia
Literacy
Spring
2003
Wendee
Bruch
Sweden, a country of 8.9 million people who reside
in an area roughly the size of California, has taken a forward-thinking approach in
integrating technology education into its compulsory and upper secondary
schools. Since 1981, efforts have been made to integrate computer hardware and
software, teacher training, and goals-oriented teaching into Swedish schools.
There have been two major technology initiatives, both funded by the Swedish
government, the COMPIS project, which began in 1981 and Swedish Schoolnet, which
began in 1994 and continues today. In addition, the government appointed a
delegation in 1998 to provide inservice training to teachers and to develop a
program of integration throughout the nation. This delegation in turn developed
ITiS, the National Action Programme for ICT in Schools. The importance of
technology in primary and secondary education continues to be an important part
of the government’s overall plan for schools. As early as 1942, there was a
government agency founded to allocate funds for technical research, and it is
from this background that the current agencies have been placed
(1).
Schools in
Sweden are not government-run. On the contrary,
they have been decentralized and the responsibility for maintaining the schools
and the quality of education falls to each of the 289 municipalities in
Sweden.
According to ITiS in “Gathering Momentum: How ITiS is Changing Swedish
Schools,” municipalities are responsible for determining what part of the budget
is allocated to education and other programs (2). This means that each
municipality may have a different funding formula, resulting in differences in
technology resources. However, the government issues guidelines for education,
and it is within these guidelines that the municipalities must operate and care
for the schools. Within these guidelines, teachers are given 104 hours of
technology inservice training per school year. (2) By the time ITiS was
launched, the government’s original focus of inservice training had been shifted
to the development of teaching methods and practices. Many teachers had already received ITC
training, and to require them to undertake more would have had no point.
Teacher-teams, groups of five to seven teachers working with the same group of
students, and already a part of the national curriculum concept for
Sweden’s compulsory schools, were a basis of the
delegation’s recommendation for technology education. This group approach to teaching is meant
to foster relationships between teachers and students in which all learn from
each other, strengthening cooperation and further progressing the group’s work.
(2)
The COMPIS project, on the other hand,
focused on the development of a “school computer” and its implementation within
the school structure. Its main concern was the development of hardware and
software that would benefit not only the schools in
Sweden, but also the technology market.
Sweden had two major technology manufacturers at
the time, both which were struggling financially. As the need for technology
education became more pronounced, drawing on the spread of computers in Swedish
schools throughout the 1970’s and the desire by the early 1980’s for computer
instruction to be included in the school curriculum, it became obvious that the
necessary hardware technology did not exist at the time in Sweden and that there
needed to be a call for propositions from technology companies (1). The COMPIS
project became problem built on problem, beginning with difficulties in finding
a suitably-priced, upgradeable, and available processor, including the restriction of the
programming language that could be used, and ending in 1988 with mixed reviews
of its success. The cost and availability of the hardware and the manufacturing
companies’ financial difficulties contributed to the failure of the computers,
as well as the fact that the testing phase of the project had been delayed by a
year because of the problems encountered in the production stage. During the
year that the project was delayed, other companies developed other systems that
sold comparably to the COMPIS computers. At the time the project was abandoned,
it cost the manufacturer and the Swedish State between $22.7 and 44.7 million, while
leaving teachers and students without adequate computers with which to work (1).
Some argue that it was not a
complete failure as it taught the technology industry in
Sweden a great deal about development, planning,
and manufacturing computer components as well as about the implementation
process (1). It also was valuable
to the government in terms of learning process.
According to a 2001 report made by the
National Agency for Education in Sweden, indicating the “density” of computers
in the schools, internet access, email capabilities, and other statistical
information, these are the institutions that were surveyed for the report: all
K-12 schools, whether public or private, all schools for the learning disabled,
whether public or private, all adult education schools, including those for
adult learning disabled students, whether public or private, the Special School,
which is a school for physically challenged students who are deaf, blind, or
otherwise need special services, and the Sami school, a school for students of
families in the northern part of the country, which speaks a different language
and has its own school. No school has been excluded from the program, and
although it is voluntary, the funding at the beginning of the program made it
almost a foregone conclusion that all schools would take part in it
(4).
The current system, that of the
development of Schoolnet, according to Johan Groth, Ph.D., of the National
Agency for Education and ISOC-SE, in “Physical or virtual Networks? Connecting
Swedish Schools to the Internet,” has not been specifically required in the
national curriculum. Rather, the policy states, “Schools should prepare the
pupils for life and work in society”. (p1) Schoolnet is the main source of
information for Swedish teachers today.
The focus of the Schoolnet is to provide teachers in Swedish schools with
a place in which to find comprehensive, useful, and safe websites which can be
incorporated into the classroom setting. According to the Schoolnet website, the
Schoolnet is much more than just an Internet guide, however. Schoolnet is
accessed about 140,000 times per day on average and most users access it several
times per week. The structure of Schoolnet is theme sites, such as Check the
Source, which deals with internet copyright issues, ethics, and evaluating
internet sources. Other theme sites are Window on Culture and the Mother Tongue
Site, all designed to assist teachers in using technology resources to their
best capacities (6).
There are three main components to
Schoolnet, according to its website, the informative component, which includes
an information center, a library and a news agency. There are also search tools
for students as well as sources for teachers on current events, competitions,
and conferences; the social component, which is used for internet communication
and activities, allowing students and teachers to contact and initiate
discussions with teachers and students in other countries; and the creative
component, which provides for the development of new educational approaches made
available through the internet and other multimedia technologies
(6).
The Schoolnet is intended to be a growing,
changing entity, which expands and embraces the changes in society and
technological innovations. In that vein, Schoolnet and the ITiS program is again
destined for change. On February 17, 2003, the delegation released its latest final
report on its findings of needed changes in ITiS (7). There is some
dissatisfaction in the rate of use of changes in technology within schools as
well as with the fact that technology is being used mostly for research purposes
and not in other areas. It examines
the existing problems, such as limited funding for maintenance and new
equipment; immature products as far as teaching aids are concerned and the need
for developing better quality resources; an immature market, again demonstrating
the need for communication between schools (the buyers) and manufacturers to
make products that are useful and affordable; and under-trained teachers
(although it admits some progress recently in teacher training) (7). Copyright issues are mentioned, both so
teachers and students do not unintentionally plagiarize, as well as copyright
protecting what is written by the teachers and students. Other ethical issues
are raised in addition to a proposed set of measures to be taken to relieve some
of these problems. It compares Sweden’s ICT policies to those of Denmark and
Norway as well as President Bush’s proposal in the United States, underlining
the fact that other nations view technology issues from a more “active and
conscious attitude” and comparing the amount of money put into technology
education. The delegation’s desire is to put
Sweden in the forefront of technology advancement,
and it is recommending better funding and development and training strategies.
It also raises the issue of funding and suggests ways for increased funds to be
brought to the municipalities for ITC expansion. There are many changes that can and will
be made in the existing system, involving several government agencies as well as
appealing to the private sector and businesses for support
(7).
The interim report published by ITiS
suggested that the development of technology in
Sweden’s school should not be viewed as a program,
but rather as a strategy, a process that will be continuing rather than a
project with an end. There is a concern on the part of the teachers that ITiS
will be disbanded and the support that they now receive will be lost. One of the
recommendations in the interim report is to develop a new ITC strategy for
Sweden, outlining its use and current place as a
cutting-edge developer of ITC use in its schools and attempting to maintain that
position in the world. (8) The report also re-emphasizes the importance of
having the administrators of the schools be trained as well as the teachers,
part of the original proposal that has not been well-met. There is also mention
of the initiative including preschools so as to maximize the number of students
being reached. The interim report also makes a number of suggestions for
changes, including more inservice time and training, stressing the importance of
facilitators and support of school officials; suggestions for a number of ways
for administrators to achieve their portion of the education; identifying people
who would be likely facilitators; strengthening and expanding the Schoolnet; a
number of support issues, from the municipalities to the international
community; developing school steering documents; requiring new teachers to pass
an ITC competency exam; research triangles to determine whether teaching
strategies are useful; the development of lessons in special schools; and
finally, a view to the future so that ITC education can continue to be
implemented in Swedish schools with a recurring and consistent manner of review
and change to keep them on a forward path in the field of technology education.
(8)
The Swedish government has taken a proactive
approach in dealing with the rapid pace of changing technology in the school
setting. It continues to review and revamp when necessary. After learning some
difficult lessons in the COMPIS stage of developing technology education,
Sweden seems to be sailing a smooth course in its
awareness of its schools’ needs. The nation will continue to keep a
forward-looking eye on the horizon of technology development and consistently
provide its schools with the information they need to keep their students
educated in this rapidly-growing and changing field.
1. “A case Study of the Swedish Government
Technology Procurement Project: The Computer in the School (COMPIS)
1981-1988,www.tema.liu.se/tema-t/sirp/PDF/322_7pdf
2. “Gathering Momentum: How ITiS is Changing Swedish
Schools”, www.itis.gov.se/publikationer/eng/Gathering%20Momentum.pdf
3. “Computers in the Schools 2001-a
quantitative picture,” http://www2.skolverket.se/BASIS/skolbok/webext/trycksak/DDD/900.pdf
4. “Physical or Virtual
Networks? Connecting Swedish Schools to Internet,” www.gogab.se/arkiv/INET98
5. “The Swedish Schoolnet,” www.skolverket.se/skolnet/pdf/schoolnet.folder.pdf
6. “National Programme for ITC
in Schools” Final Report with proposals and recommendations link, www.itis.gov.se/english/index.html
7. “National Programme for ITC in
Schools” Interim Report link, www.itis.gov.se/english/index.html
