Digital technology is an expanding area of education policy. There is growing interest, therefore, in how networks of corporate and state policy actors implicit in the formation of (inter)national education technology agendas intersect with local school systems and teachers. In particular, this paper explores the significant policy work that takes…

Schools' use of digital technology has so far proved to be a peripheral feature of the Conservative-Liberal education agenda. Through a series of reductions to previously extensive bureaucratic and funding structures, the Coalition administration has presided over a swift but sustained withdrawal of state support for digital technology use in…

From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, schools micro-computing in the UK developed from being a niche "hobbyist" activity to a prominent, officially mandated element of the national education system. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key actors of the time, this paper outlines the initial varied interpretations of schools…

"Realising the potential of new technology" was one of the central educational themes of New Labour's 1997 election manifesto, with "information and communications technology" (ICT) established subsequently as a prominent feature of the Blair administration policy portfolio. As such New Labour can claim rightly to have made an…

England's 1.6 billion-pound National Grid for Learning initiative represents an unprecedented government commitment to educational use of information and communications technology (ICT). NGfL will integrate ICT into all schooling areas via increased funding, teacher training, and simulation of a systemwide "ICT culture." Implications and…

Public policy rhetoric depicts information/communications technologies as a means of transforming lifelong education, freeing individual learners, broadening social inclusion, and improving competitiveness. However, concerns about social exclusion are predominantly economic, and increasing participation does not mean the same thing as widening…

This paper looks at private interest involvement in education Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policymaking and implementation in the United Kingdom, using the National Grid for Learning (NGfL), an initiative to connect every U.K. school to the Internet and create an online connected learning community of teachers and students with…