ABSTRACT
A factor which adds to the diffi culty of interpreting research outcomes is the nature of ICT as an innovation in progress in which, at the same time that schools and teachers are attempting to integrate its use, the technology itself is constantly changing and developing. This makes considerable demands on technicians involved in procurement and systems management, as well as teachers, so that despite large expenditure by governments researchers frequently fi nd that teachers’ attempts at innovative practice are impeded by technical breakdown. Writers such as Cuban et al. (2001) rightly point to the devastating impact of systems defects on teachers’ confi dence and motivation to use technology, but seem to assume too readily that these failures are endemic to technology rather than being effects of mismatches in assumptions and differences in vision between administrator-managers, technicians and teachers. This is a process which I will call the ‘imagination gap’ and seek to understand in terms of competing interest groups within organisations, in particular differences between technician-users and teacher-users, bearing in mind that the former are constantly under stress attempting to keep up with technological change and keep systems up and running.
