ABSTRACT
The advent of the microcomputer in the early 1980s brought with it high expectations regarding this tool’s potential to drive change and innovation in schools. Although a number of projects have produced significant results at a research level, it is nevertheless true that these expectations appear to have remained largely unfulfilled (see Andrews, 1999; Becker, 1993; Bottino & Furinghetti, 1998; Pelgrum, 1996). Indeed, it would seem that computer use has had a limited impact on schooling throughout the world (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1993). One of the main reasons for this (disregarding factors related to hardware availability and management and to the traditional resistance of both school systems and teachers to change) is that technology has often been introduced as an addition to an existing, unchanged classroom setting (De Corte, 1996).
