Chapter 14: National Policies and Practices on ICT in Education: Finland

The above quotation encapsulates the vision behind Finland’s national information strategy. The main thrust of the strategy is to develop and utilize the opportunities inherent in the Information Society in order to improve the Finnish people’s quality of life, knowledge, international competitiveness, and interaction. The national information strategy also outlines the changes in our national operational environment and the overall development of the Finnish Information Society. The fast development of information and communication technology (ICT) and new media, such as mobile communicators, electronic books, and digital radio and television, has created new tools for the ever-diversifying educational needs of the population. Finland aims to provide a fruitful experimental field for technological, social, cultural, and pedagogical innovations (Ministry of Education 1999a; see also Silberman, 1999).