From Vertical To Horizontal? A Longitudinal Study of Information Technology in Ten Schools

Abstract

This paper, which arises out of wider Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research, examines the provision of information technology in ten British secondary schools. The longitudinal nature of the research allows us to test a model proposed by Wellington, which describes the evolution of information technology in secondary schools from a vertical to a horizontal approach, against the data from the ten schools. We explore tensions between vertical and horizontal approaches and show that the evolutionary process is more complex than suggested by the model. We focus on the role of the information technology co-ordinator in promoting horizontal approaches to information technology and explore the conditions under which the role is carried out.