ABSTRACT
In 1996, the marketing and communication division of a telecommunication company presented the results of a distance education project at a national fair on technological innovations. The project consisted of teaching children in different European countries a language via videoconferencing technology. The project was declared a (marketing) success, even though during the project the educational and marketing goals conflicted and the expected use and users of the technology did not match the actual use and users. By focusing on the interaction between the actors by means of a theory on the social construction of technology, SCOT, this case gives insight in the way educational objectives and content are sacrificed for other – in this case marketing – purposes and the reasons for this sacrifice. The teachers had their own interpretation of the project, but were forced to sacrifice their main requirement. When this requirement could not be met they abandoned the fight for the educational objectives. This meant the teachers were now more than ever subject to the micro politics and power structure of the dominant ‘marketing’ sociotechnical frame. SCOT also addresses the reason for the attribution of ‘success’ to the project. There occurred a closure as to the objective of the project in the interaction process. The actors adopted the marketing division’s objective. Thus the project was a success in spite of all the problems and in spite of the fact that the educational and technical objectives were not met.
