Promoting Mr, 'Chips': the construction of the teacher/computer relationship in educational advertising

The pound1 billion government drive to integrate information and communicat ions technology (ICT) into UK schools and colleges has been firmly focused on the technological transformation of the teaching profession. In particul ar, the establishment of a National Grid for Learning (NGfL) remains depend ent on the successful 'selling' of ICT to teachers; many of whom have previ ously proved unwilling to use computers. In practice much of this task has been left to IT firms, eager to promote their products to a potentially luc rative educational marketplace. From this basis the present paper takes a d etailed examination of educational computing advertising material currently being produced by IT firms in the UK. In particular it concentrates on how advertisements construct both the process of education and the teacher as a potential user of ICT. Four dominant themes emerge from this analysis: IC T as problematic for teachers; ICT as a problem solver for teachers; ICT as a futuristic form of education; and ICT as a traditional form of education . Despite the conflicting, and often contra-factual, nature of these four d iscourses the paper argues that educational computing advertising is consis tent in its disempowering portrayal of the teacher at the expense of both t he computer and IT firm. This 'demotion' of the teacher is likely to have n egative effects on the way that teachers approach ICT as part of their prof essional routine, running contrary to the underlying aims of the National G rid for Learning initiative. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.