The dutch situation: An ever continuing story

Abstract

In this chapter we describe the development of teaching with and about computers, mainly in Dutch secondary education. The focus is on the years 1970-1995, but we also give some insight into what happens afterwards. Because there are only a few written sources available of what happened in classrooms, we give most attention to national policies during that period. With the help of some colleagues from teacher training institutions we can also present some insight in what support was offered to their students and to teachers who were already in duty. We also report about the resources for teaching: courses, the teachers’ association, an advisory institution, books/periodicals and software/courseware. In our conclusions we mention, that initially there was no difference between teaching with or about computers. The most interesting point in the conclusions is that the government rather lately developed a policy and thought that that policy would be sufficient for future development of teaching with and about IT in schools. This assumption turned out to be false and each time, up to nowadays, the government had to take its responsibility on these issues.