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Information and Communication Technologies and Workplace Learning: The Contested Terrain of Legislation, Policies, Programs and Practices

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International Handbook of Educational Policy

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 13))

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Abstract

At the turn of the new millennium, national expenditures on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have approached double digits as a percentage of GDP within the USA, Japan and the European Union countries breaking the 7.5 percent mark. In the USA alone, these expenditures represent over 1.5 trillion dollars per year. Despite this, OECD policy analysts (1999) and an enormous array of others (e.g., Reich, 1991; Thomson, 1993; Castells, 1996; Archibugi & Lundvall, 2001) suggest this isn’t enough. For them, it is clear that economic success is dependent on further development of ICT: investment in it, its application, and its diffusion. However, what are we to make of this policy orthodoxy? How is ‘technology’ itself understood in this context? What are the presumptions made about the relationship between ICT development, implementation, learning and use?

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Sawchuk, P.H. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies and Workplace Learning: The Contested Terrain of Legislation, Policies, Programs and Practices. In: Bascia, N., Cumming, A., Datnow, A., Leithwood, K., Livingstone, D. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Policy. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_49

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