How Computers Entered the Classroom, 1960–2000: Historical Perspectives

Description

In the history of education, the question of how computers were introduced into European classrooms has so far been largely neglected. This edited volume strives to address this gap. The contributions shed light on the computerization of education from a historical perspective, by attending closely to the different actors involved – such as politicians, computer manufacturers, teachers, and students –, political rationales and ideologies, as well as financial, political, or organizational structures and relations. The case studies highlight differences in political and economic power, as well as in ideological reasoning and the priorities set by different stakeholders in the process of introducing computers into education. However, the contributions also demonstrate that simple cold war narratives fail to capture the complex dynamics and entanglements in the history of computers as an educational technology and a subject taught in schools. The edited volume thus provides a comprehensive historical understanding of the role of education in an emerging digital society. Table of Contents Computers in Europe’s Classrooms: An Introduction Part I: Case Studies Informatique pour tous, France 1985: Pedagogy, Industry and Politics How Computers Entered the Classroom in Hungary: A Long Journey from the Late 1950s into the 1980s Computers in the Classrooms of an Authoritarian Country: The Case of Soviet Latvia (1980s–1991) Teachers Translating and Circumventing the Computer in Lower and Upper Secondary Swedish Schools in the 1970s and 1980s Joining Forces: The Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships to Bring Computers into West German Schools in the 1980s Computer Education in Switzerland: Politics and Markets in a Highly Decentralized Country Part II: Trans- and Supranational Perspectives Entangled Media Ecologies: The Nexus of Education and Mass Communication from the Perspective of UNESCO (1945–1989) Beyond the Classroom: Economic Policies and the Past Futures of Education and Training in the European Community, 1970–2000 Defuturization Machines: The OECD’s Early Efforts to Plan the Computerized Future of Education Contributors