Expectations of Technology

Abstract This article presents a preliminary analysis of the political and educational systems as regards their respective expectations of information technology and teachers’ and students’ use of personal laptop computers in high school, where they are regarded as two differentiated social functional systems. The theoretical basis is inspired by the German sociologist and system theorist Niklas Luhmann, and this analysis is rooted in the concept of systems, where the central concepts are learning and teaching. Thus in theory it is a question of operationalising Luhmann’s cognitive and communicative theories and his theory of social systems, focusing on the two mutually dependent concepts of learning and teaching, or in other words, the concepts of the construction of evidence and the specialised form of communication known as teaching. Assumptions regarding new technology have not been met to the degree expected. The present empirical study demonstrated that the concept “revolution,” used by the political system, cannot be used in this context. The empirical study was carried out on the basis of a system-theoretically inspired consecutive research design (1998-2001). The subject field is a Danish high school, where teachers and students (10 teachers and 22 students) participated in the consecutive research project and were observed by the researcher throughout the three year course of a Danish high school. The article concludes that the educational framework, learning environments and teacher training need rethinking.