Project Work in the Paperless School: A Case Study in a Swedish Upper Secondary Class

This paper reports of how ICT and a computer rich environment is used in a an upper secondary Swedish school to change traditional teacher and pupil work. A teacher and his classes were followed during one week. Observations, field notes, spontaneous conversations and formal interviews with the teacher and some pupils were made. Teachers' and pupils' work is affected in many ways. Some of the traditional teacher's work is here left to the pupils. In spite of the pedagogical intention to promote cooperation, the technology seems to strengthen individual work. ICT also seems to lead to the dissolution of boundaries between home and work place, working time and leisure time. The pupils' task to search for information on the Internet and transform it into personal knowledge is not an easy one. Discussion or evaluation of sources and origin of texts found on the Internet seems to be negligent.