MARKET AND POLICIES

Large public investments have been made and many projects are being conducted to further the implementation of IT in the Swedish society; local communities, schools, companies and authorities are all being influenced by this. In the IT proposition that was adopted in 1996 by the government the importance of the educational sector was emphasised as playing a key role in developing Sweden’s international competitiveness. Life-long learning can be supported by broad and comprehensive usage of IT within the educational sector. But to achieve this, measures must be taken on all levels of the educational system, including adult education. The pedagogical arena is widening and education and competence development not only happens in the schools but also in the workplace and in the home.

 IT in Society - Great possibilities, democratic Challenges

There is at the same time, a discussion of the risk that Sweden will be a 2/3 society with a sharp division between winners and losers. Research by the trade union top organisation LO shows that while the number of computers in the homes of its members has dramatically increased there are still great differences to academic groups. The same trend holds true for the use of Internet; in 1996 3% of LO members used Internet compared to 22% for academic groups. A great number of research studies ( FRI-Research group for Society and Information Studies and LO) show that there is a great difference in the usage of Internet between young men and women - 25% of the men and only 11% of the women born in the 1970´s uses the Internet. The typical Swedish Internet user is a 25-year old male with higher education and belonging to a high-income group who lives in one of the larger Swedish cities. In fact it is becoming increasingly common to refer to a new stratification of the population in the Swedish society ( det nya ståndssamhället), implying that depending on what parents a child has it may have a smaller or larger exposure to IT learning opportunities and having connected computers at home, reinforced among other by the fact that many upper-strata parents are today supplied with computers they can bring home and with Internet connections to their homes.

Schools have a special responsibility for countering adverse trends leading to a part of society being outside this information and knowledge society. The government notes especially that schools have a general task of giving all students an education of equal quality and this is particularly important when it comes to all student rights to knowledge of and practise in using IT.

The Swedish school system has undergone rapid changes. Today local communities and province authorities are responsible for running schools, within the framework of a National Curriculum. Decision-makers in these local communities are competing with each other in making their local schools more outstanding than other ( 'spjutspetsar'), in the same breath as they are struggling with overall financial shortages. This creates often a dilemma, perceived by many stakeholders as right or wrong priority settings made.

A firm orientation towards goal based as opposed to strictly regulated governing of schools is at hand. Local communities are responsible for establishing and implementing plans for IT in education in the local schools. Local schools are now permissible by private initiative ( free schools) and private and public companies start upper secondary school training classes for their special company needs, within the framework of the National Curriculum.

During the 1990’s, a new National Curriculum has been adopted as well as a new grading system. New teaching methods are being introduced, focusing on exploration and problem-orientation. The focus has changed from teaching to learning. Teachers are supposed to be more of mentors in an exploratory world where students are trained to function in a complex world with increasing information flow and rapid changes. At the same time, computers are introduced as a natural learning device in the classroom. A world of information opens with great opportunities to pursuit knowledge and communicate globally.

Since the beginning of the 1970’s, the Swedish government has initiated a large number of IT projects in schools. Many good projects have been conducted and a substantial body of experience has been gathered. Evaluations of these projects have given a varying picture of experiences and result; many focused more on the technology itself rather than the use of technology, many were isolated experiments and the pedagogical effects have not been satisfactory.

This is changing today. IT is now discussed in connection to changes in teaching styles and broad school development. Substantial resources are now being allocated by national bodies to implementation of IT in both primary and secondary schools as well as universities. At the same time, pilot schools are receiving large funds to drive development projects. The results and experiences of these projects are then widely distributed. Most schools are expected to undertake these changes to a more IT-oriented environment without any extra financial or organisational support. Results, with a more comprehensive perspective, are still needed to be evaluated, however a scanning of the Web-presence and its content/quality may lead a spectator to get the impression that the progress is more articulated for the schools for lower age-groups than what is the apparent case in the upper levels of the educational system.

Computers and networks are the technology of the information age, multimedia is the form wherein to make it accessible and content is the goal. The challenge is to turn the potential into products and learning processes, into a better learning environment and a new generation of learning material. There are possibilities for developing multimedia-based youth education, academic teaching, vocational training and staff training, or expressed in one phrase: multimedia-based lifelong learning and self-development.

What characterises the situation in this respect in Sweden today, what are the obstacles and what are the prospects? It may be useful star answering this question by illustrating the relative contextual maturity of the Swedish school system, and the Swedish households, in terms of their access and usage of IT.

A recent study of the Swedish 'net-presence' indicates that 2.430.000 Swedes were on the net by end-March 1998 ( an increase by 90.000 since Feb-98), and a quarter of the population ( 27%) is 'on-the-net' at least once a week and that 13% of population is 'surfing' daily, 34% is using the net at least monthly. There is still a difference between sexes ( 1/3 female and 2/3 male) but the female group is increasing rapidly, often with a more practical orientation. The regional differences are not so significantly different, but the highest user intensity is found in the larger cities. The usage reduces with age, with 46% as weekly rate for 12-24 years and down to 11% for the 50-76 years old users.

The usage of Internet in organisations is increasing with a very rapid rate. Sweden has the highest number of companies in Europe ( approx. 50%) with an Internet access among its employees exceeding 70%, and Swedish enterprises are catering for just above 10% of its network communication over Internet. Usage of videoconferences are also highest in Europe ( 12%), the same is the case with usage of Intranets ( 53%), and above 80% of Swedish companies have a Web-site and 23% are using electronic commerce services. But what about usage of Internet for product- and customer training, and providing opportunities for lifelong learning among its staff? Here it is still much to do both in usage of IT and on-line training as well as building bridges between the 'world-of-work' and 'the-world-of-learning' at the works-site and between the industry and the educational institutions. Nine out of ten companies expresses a need to improve the IT competencies among its employees, and beyond the basic computer courses.

The usage of IT and Internet among students in higher education has also been surveyed recently, e.g. 8000 students at Lunds university, indicating a 'typical' student profile. Around 80% are using PC, 87% had their own computer and all had some form of regular access to a computer. Email is used daily by 57% of the students, and 38% had made their own home-page. 55% collects course information from the web and 35% consider that they have a better instructor interaction due to Internet/email. Among the Internet users there are 78% of the student that are using modem connections from home, 6% have permanent connections from home and 35% of the students are using the fixed-lines available at the university.

The National Agency for Education ( Skolverket - www.skolverket.se)

The National Agency for Education was founded in 1991, when the responsibility for schools and education was radically changed from a central Government control to a goal-oriented system entailing considerable local responsibilities. Today, the organisation and staffing of schools, and the distribution of resources, are in the hands of the local authorities. The National Agency for Education has the mission to help in ensuring the development of Swedish schools in such ways that the reality of everyday schooling is kept in line with the objectives of national educational policy.

In line with its mission handbook has recently been produced, called 'A School for the Future' ( http://www.skolverket.se/n/nc1.html ), which forms part of the continuous work carried out by the National Agency for Education to reform the upper-secondary school education in Sweden. The text provides comments on the documents establishing national objectives on their interrelation and the relationship between national documents and local curriculum work. The aim of the booklet is to shed light on the background and motives of the reform and to stimulate discussion and support current efforts at school level. Another useful publication is the 'Guide for IT Strategies for the school' which advises local school management on critical issues relating to introduction and use of IT in the school system.

( Skoldatanätet - www.skolverket.se/skolnet/)

The Swedish School Computer Network at Internet started in 1994 and is the National Agency’s single most important contribution to the IT development of Swedish schools. The school network contains over 20,000 web pages that are accessed from this network, it contains a library with over 1200 quality links, and projects within special areas: music, environment, art etc. In this network, there is also a virtual dictionary - Lexin, for Swedish-English and Swedish-Finnish. Lexin is the only Swedish dictionary that is available on the Internet and has thousands of users every day. The National Agency of Education also produces a newspaper, Classroom On-line, ( or Klassrum Direkt) that covers current events/news on the Internet as well as spreading examples of good practise. Classroom On-line is available in both a paper and an Internet version.

A number of innovative interfaces have been made in order to generate value-added contributions to the Swedish School Computer Network. A contract has been signed with the largest Swedish dailies, giving schools free access to the article archives of these newspapers via the Internet. An agreement has also been made with a progressive developer of web-based training, enabling more than 6000 schools to have free access to 'Web-driver licence' training courses, initially developed for the commercial market. Another useful service is the collective map over the entire educational environment in Sweden, 'Utväg', and its associated collection of school addresses and descriptive information of each type of educational initiative in Sweden.

The Swedish government gave for some time back directives to the National Agency of Education to create an Internet-based Resource Center in order to promote the growth of IT-based educational material - educational multimedia - and study how these can be used in teaching. Such services are today being integrated into the web-services provided by the 'Skoldatanätet'.

One of the recent additions in their services is the 'Multimedia bureau' functioning as an on-line resource for school-based production of IT-based learning material. It contains multimedia archives with artwork and sound-strips, an idea-bank and interaction areas for users of this service.

ODIN, the Nordic School Data Network was founded in March 1994. ODIN consists of eight national school computer networks and a Nordic part. On the Nordic square all teachers and students from Greenland in west and Finland in east meet. There they will find school projects, practical information about school co-operation, such as scholarships, agreements etc. Thanks to similarities between the school systems in the Nordic countries, the net users can take advantage of the content of the school data networks in their neighbouring countries. The Swedish School Data network is one of the national members in this network ( http://www.odin.dk/english/index.html).

In this connection the initiatives taken by the Nordic Council of Ministers, called IDUN, may be relevant to be mentioned. In particular its development of 'model courses' such as on-line teacher-training course, as well as its course for generation of collaboration between teacher-training colleges ( http://www.tic.dk/projekt/idun/).

The Swedish School Data Network is also a member in the European SchoolNet, and involved in a range of initiatives associated with this network ( www.eun.org/fram.html).

( http://www.ungit.se/english.htm)

The Youth Council for IT ( in Swedish: Ungdomens IT-råd) is a Swedish National Committee, consisting of seven young males and females aged 15-29 years, was established by the Prime Minister in January 1995, later organised within the Ministry of Communications. The principal task of the Committee was to promote the use and utilisation of Information Technology among young people – in education, in leisure time and when entering the labour market. The Council has published three reports. The first one was called "Möss och människor ", which is a Swedish translation of the title of John Steinbeck’s novel "Of mice and men", which contains a number of best practices on the use of modern technology among young people. The second report was about how to use modern technology in the school system of today. The last report, Mega Change, which completed the Councils assignment, is a vision for the future society and it deals with the needed changes of the democratic state, of the education system and of the labour market.

The National Agency for Higher Education is a central government authority dealing with questions concerning Swedish universities and university colleges. Its responsibility includes follow-up, evaluation and supervision of the activities of universities and university colleges, the analysis of major trends in higher education, the promotion of new developments and improvements in quality and teaching methods. The Agency also exercises supervision over the right of institutions of higher education to award degrees and to establish professorships at university colleges. In addition the Agency is responsible for information concerning study programmes, international questions, the assessment of university programmes in other countries, statistics concerning higher education, the administration of the national university aptitude test and co-ordination of the Swedish university SUNET computer network ( www.hsv.se/english/index.html). The agency is also publishing a guide to the Swedish Higher Education system ( http://www.hsv.se/english/Swehigheredu.html) among its flora of reports and studies.

 Council for the Renewal of Undergraduate education

( Rådet för grundläggande högskoleutbildning - www.hgur.se)

The National Agency for Higher Education supports the Council for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education in its development of educational material based on IT, for example multimedia, within several areas. These multimedia products are expensive to produce therefore within medicine and modern languages a national development program has been established. A close co-operation between universities stimulated by the National Agency of Education is now being organised to maximise the exchange of knowledge and experience.

A larger number of projects have been funded and initiated by the agency. With the most recent round initiated in 1998 this stock of projects provides a wide range of practical demonstrators of IT in higher education ( http://www.hgur.se/general/projects/hems.htm).

The Council is regularly distributing a newsletter, appreciated by most actors in this sector within Sweden, as well as keeps a list of organisations involved in telepedagogic issues ( 'datapedagogiska centra') on their web-site ( www.hgur.se/general/org-sv.htm).

Folkuniversitetet is a non-profit organisation in the field of adult education. It is an association of five foundations: the Extramural Departments attached to the Universities of Stockholm, Uppsala, Göteborg, Lund and Umeå. Folkuniversitetet offers many types of adult education and arranges courses at about 40 centres throughout Sweden. Folkuniversitetet runs a number of distance learning courses using Internet, among other 'Certificate in Advanced English', which includes CAE exam from Cambridge, England.

It also distributes news on distance learning through its 'Open Forum' in the on-line magazine "Kunskapspunkten".

The ambition of forming consortia and associations between institutions is extensive in Sweden today, partially based on a tradition of inter-organisational collaborations for political or image generating purposes, or more recently for generate more attraction among different potential financiers of 'development projects'. Many of these 'consortia', 'alliances' and 'networks' have lifetimes closely correlated to the lifetime of external financing, with some few but significant exceptions. The shift in Government financing of educational initiatives makes old initiatives and collaborations to fade out, and new ones to appear on the market. National funds, like KKS and DUKOM, and Regional or Sectorial funds, such as those associated with various EU programmes, as well as larger national initiatives, such as 'Kunskapslyftet' and the national re-education programmes, often generated constellations that would never appear, or survive, in a normal commercial and self-financing environment. However, as these contextual influences are real, it is also important to consider these as part and parcel of the national context.

The IT Commission is an advisory body to the Swedish Government, assigned to actively monitor, initiate and support the development of a society in which IT is a natural and integrated tool for everyone, providing opportunities to improve our mutual quality of life, to strengthen democracy and make Sweden more competitive. The mandate of the present IT Commission will expire at the end of May 1998. The Swedish Government has recently introduced the budget proposals and for the following three years, SEK 1,8 billion will be assigned to IT development. A new IT Commission will be appointed for a period of five years and new assignments will be stated.

The IT Commission has also initiated a number of forums, such as Swebizz,
an association for the promotion of Electronic Trading, SeniorNet Sweden, to promote the use of IT and the Internet among senior citizens, and IT Legal Observatory, with the main task to advise the Government in matters related to changes in the legal system due to the rapid development of IT and its impact on society. Many of the findings, recommendations and development work of these forums, together with the seminars implemented under the umbrella of the IT Commission, and reports produced under the heading of the IT Commission, have direct implications on the IT application context in Sweden, both in a general trend setting manner as well as concrete issue influences.

( Stiftelsen för kunskap och kompetensutveckling - www.kks.se )

A concrete result of the first IT Commission was the establishment in 1994 of the Foundation for Competence and Knowledge ( KK Stiftelsen). The aim of the Foundation is to promote and support the development of competence and create conditions for economic growth. The Foundation promotes activities which are innovative, provide good models for others to emulate and which have long-term objectives.

The KKS task is to contribute to establishing a bank of knowledge regarding IT, to create conditions for increased competence in this area and to stimulate economic development.

The KKS Foundation is encouraging wide spread national use of IT and stimulating co-operation between university and industry as well as research at Swedish universities. The Foundation has a total funding close to 5 billion SEK; 750-800 million SEK dedicated to IT projects for the schools. Most of this funding is used in 28 main projects based in local communities throughout Sweden.

During a three-year period ( 1996-1998) 120 million SEK will be spent to support the production of IT-based educational material available either through CD-ROM or the Internet. Half of this funding will be distributed among non-commercial projects that can be totally financed via subsidies. The underlying theme here is to support special projects, schools, institutions, organisations in order to develop ideas and knowledge that in the future can be a basis for more commercial projects.

The remaining 60 million SEK is dedicated to commercial projects, the principle being that these projects can receive up to 50% funding to cover costs. Totally, there will be approximately 150 projects that can receive funding. The first screening of project applications showed that the majority was from already established publishers.

The KK Foundation is expressing interest in building up links with those who have good innovative ideas as well as the ability to transform these into reality and disseminate the knowledge gained to others. The major part of the KK Foundation's funding is direct towards programs which provide support for the exchange of knowledge and competence between industry, universities, university colleges and research institutes, profiled research at smaller and medium-sized university colleges as well as the promotion of information technology. In each area times have been set up for the application rounds

The present call for proposal ( Spring-98) focuses on two issues; establishment of consortia and school development projects.

The consortia should be national, develop training programmes on Master-degree level for mainly SMEs, include involvement of universities, be branch-related and target a large group of enterprises. The Foundation finances over a five-year period the development cost, plus part of the delivery cost.

The KK Foundation also invites ( Spring-98) compulsory and upper secondary schools to apply for project funds for the development of information technology ( IT) in teaching natural sciences and technology. Applications for partial financing of development projects should be received by the Foundation latest end-May 1998.

The full range of KKS funded project includes; School development projects, Learning Materials development projects, Development of IT for work and education, Handicap and IT, Lifelong learning and Labour Union Education, as well as 'Kulturen and IT' projects.

( Distansutbildningskommitten www.dukom.hadar.ideon.se )

In may 1995, the government appointed a special investigator to suggest measures to improve the use of open and distance learning methods within adult education and universities, and especially to study how the opportunities presented by IT were being used. The primary purpose of the initiative is to facilitate school studies, academic studies and further education for people nation-wide, independently of geographical location. Also to give people an opportunity to pursue studies, despite of working situation and other obstacles.

Since the initiation of the Commission's funding of project, approximately 400 projects have been implemented ( http://www.dukom.hadar.ideon.se/ALLAPROJ.HTM).

The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, often called UR, is a public broadcaster and a designer, producer, broadcaster and distributor of educational materials in Sweden. UR is one of three companies that make up Sweden’s public broadcasting system. UR has its headquarters in Stockholm and has 24 regional offices throughout Sweden that produce educational radio programs for the national and regional/local networks. UR produces and broadcasts TV and radio programs for the entire educational community, which includes pre-schools, schools, university education and distance education. UR also produces and broadcasts programs for continuing education and for the further education of teachers. Many of UR´s TV and radio programs convey information and knowledge to the general public, such as conditions, the lives and conditions of persons with disabilities as well as newcomers to Sweden, basic economics, computer literacy, foreign languages and global geography.

UR is financed through a user fee that each household with one or more TV-sets pays in Sweden. The size of the fee and the amount of it that goes to public broadcasting is determined by Sweden´s Parliament. For the year 1997 UR gets about 250 million Swedish crowns for its operation.

UR participates in a number of international college/university telelearning courses with partners in Australia, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. UR plays a key role in arranging international co-productions among broadcasters and educational organisations, such as the European Broadcasting Union. UR co-ordinates also the Swedish MidasNet node, an initiative co-financed by the European Commission's INFO2000 program, and which directs its support on creating new multimedia markets by stimulating user demand at national and the European level among targeted user groups.

UR is fully equipped with advanced modern technical facilities for terrestrial and satellite transmissions and is introducing digital radio and TV broadcasts during 1997.

After a period of experiments, UR is launching its own department for the designing and production of new technology, such as CD-ROM’s and computer support materials. UR has also its own publishing house. It has its own Web server and uses the First Class conference system for distance education, teacher training and discussions in conjunction with broadcasted educational programmes.

Sweden has a network of municipal audiovisual media centers that make UR’s products available to schools and other educational organisations. Within this network UR arranges educational activities in conjunction with programs. UR’s TV and radio programs and multimedia products are made available through some 250 public libraries. UR works closely with various organisations to develop the further use of computers and computer software in education. UR is involved in numerous projects that aim at stimulating interest in and increasing knowledge about interactive media.

UR is a partner in a national consortium called "The Swedish Distance College." The other partners are the colleges in Örebro, Karlskrona/Ronneby, Gävle-Sandviken, Sundsvall and TBV ( http://www.ur.se/ur/htmldocs/sv_dist.html). Some of the recently developed distance learning courses developed under this umbrella is the 'Do you need to know more about IT' courses, and one of those focus on 'IT for Teachers' which combines broadcasting, multimedia, IT, Distance Learning and conventional book reading.

It should in this connection also be noted that there also exist similar consortia in other parts of Sweden, like the West-Sweden Consortia for Distance Education, which started in mid-94 and have the purpose to collaborate in evaluation of distance learning initiatives as well as collaboratively develop the teacher competencies in implementing distance learning programmes ( http://www.htu.se/vkd/).

The Swedish EU Programme Office is a national authority set up on 1st July 1995 to help the promoters of development projects relating to training and competence development to obtain EU support. The tasks of the Programme Office include information, development, counselling, applications processing, evaluation, and dissemination of results. The Swedish EU Programme Office; provides a way into several of the EU programmes and an effective link between Swedish policy-making and the EU programmes, co-operates with a whole variety of players in the field of training and competence development, supports various regional and local EU programme co-ordinators. This support includes training, information and network support. The Office can help players to navigate among the various EU programmes and initiatives. In addition, the Programme Office is also responsible for "A School Year in France", International Practice scholarships, NORDPLUS-junior, which support exchanges with schools in the other Nordic countries, and IAESTE, the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience.

Swedish Agency for Administrative Development has the aim to support the Government and Ministries in their endeavours to review, raise efficiency in and exert control over state and state-financed activities. Action includes; Structure, control and development of public administration; Deregulation, de-monopolisation and evaluation of public-service activities. Modernisation of activities and provision of information. Technical platforms and information security. Public procurement of IT, including telecom services. This agency is also one of the members of the Swedish MidasNet node, it produces a number of publications and recommendations that affects the Swedish IT- and Multimedia market and it implements seminars where trends, recommendations and proposed standards are conveyed to the public and private sector ( http://www.statskontoret.se/stkeng.htm).

NUTEK is Sweden`s central public authority for matters concerning the growth and renewal of industry ( www.nutek.se ). NUTEK has a Competence Centre Programme which has the aim to create strong academic research environments in which industrial companies participate actively. Over the period March 1995 – July 1996, 28 NUTEK Competence Centres at 8 universities or institutes of technology started their activities. These were recently evaluated and the future support to these centres are presently ( Spring-98) under debate. NUTEK is producing a large number of research reports many of these addresses IT and multimedia issues ( http://193.10.56.81/forlag/publ_eng.htm).

A focus of Nutek is the development of the business sector. Nutek is among other financially supporting multimedia production, mainly in the area of methodology development. The goal of those initiatives are to develop usable strategies and methods for the production of educational and self-study multimedia systems.

 The Swedish Institute of Computer Science

The Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SICS, is a non-profit research foundation. The objects are to contribute to the competitive strength of Swedish industry by carrying out advanced research in selected areas of Computer Science on one hand, and actively promoting use of new ideas and results in industry on the other hand. SICS personnel is also engaged in education at Swedish universities. The core of the research at SICS ( one third) is financed by NUTEK, the Swedish National Board for Technical and Industrial Development and the main research areas are; Real-time Computer and Networks Architectures, Software Technology for Distributed Systems, and Human-Computer Interaction for Distributed Systems. This includes also distributed and parallel computer systems, high-speed and mobile networks, software methodology, formal design methods, knowledge-based systems, neural networks, multimedia, human-computer interaction, virtual reality and language technology ( http://www.sics.se/).

( http://www.sisu.se/)

The Swedish Institute for Systems Development, SISU, was established in 1984 jointly by NUTEK, the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development, and by a number of founding organisations. Today SISU co-operates with 25 affiliated companies, organised in the Association of Supporters of Information Systems Development in Sweden. SISU's affiliates represent government departments, as well as public and private enterprises. SISU`s mission is to serve as a bridge between national and international research institutes and universities and networks, and the industrial, business and public sectors in Sweden. Application areas include: Business Process Improvement, in which is seen as facilitating technology for changing the ways in which organisations and individuals collaborate and organise their work. Business Intelligence and Decision Support, where applications are focused on the collation, management and analysis of information from the environment external to organisations. Exploitation of Information Markets, which focus the use of emerging global computing and communications platforms for the delivery and consumption of new IT-based services and products.

( http://www.pedagogic.com/)

The Swedish TelePedagogic Knowledge Centre is a networking organisation, binding together the expertise and innovative actors in Sweden and Europe, as well as the rest of the world. STPKC has become a recognised national and European "knowledge broker", and is also a national co-ordinator for a range of multimedia and IT-based projects, collaborative actions, such as user group formation, user support and implementing national events related to EU initiatives. The TelePedagogic Knowledge Centre operates, in close collaboration with Noesis Competency Management International and the EmmerceNet services, one of the more advanced 'virtual community' server addressing a wide range of IT, multimedia and Information Society issues ( http://cmi.noesis.se) . The TelePedagogic Knowledge Centre is, together with UR, Stadskontoret, SISU and NUTEK, constituting the Swedish MidasNet node ( http://cmi.noesis.se/midasnet/), as well as actively involved in environmental scanning of trends and technological developments within areas such as Telematics, Multimedia, IT-based Education and Collaborative work and Ecommerce.

( http://toppled.nutek.se/tlfeng.html )

Toppledarforum is an informal collaboration entity for co-operative initiatives implemented in order to generate renewal in the public service application of IT, in particular in connection of public tendering and acquisition processes and the utilisation of EDI and electronic commerce. As such the direct influences from the Toppledarforum will affect information flow between the public sector, including the educational system, and the commercial market, the infrastructure available for such external interfaces, as well as the internal communication structures, and the way in with the actors within the system will be influenced to adopt new technologies and its associated competency demands. Most specifically the Topledarforum will surely influence the way in which compensations for services are being handled via different forms of ecommerce solutions.

The IT industry, together with the telecommunications providers, plays the roles as technical solution providers, value-added service providers as well as customers in the Swedish IT- and Multimedia market - and all role are of significance. Products and services are extensively consumed within its own sector, competency development initiatives in this area are to a great extent consumed by the actors in this market and the trend-setters and development/change-inducers are also within this market niche.

The Swedish IT-companies' Organisation ( IT-Companies) represents companies marketing IT products and services. The Swedish IT-companies' Organisation was set up with the object of "actively promoting the healthy and profitable development of the Swedish IT industry and being its natural representative". The IT-Companies is an organisation of businesses devoted to developing, producing and selling IT products and services. As an industry organisation, our activities are based on the common interest our members have in the industry's development and reputation. An important function of the IT-Companies is to represent members vis-à-vis government authorities, the media, and other organisations. Another important task is keeping members informed of new statutory and regulatory requirements that may affect their operations. The IT-Companies numbers approximately 500 members, including manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, OEMs and software houses. Members' products cover the whole range from audiovisual equipment to sophisticated computer and telecommunications systems. The IT-Companies also produce 'The Swedish IT Book', an industry directory containing some 350,000 electronic addresses ( fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and Internet addresses). The book also contains help and advice on using IT, as well as introductions to the Internet, electronic trading, tele-working, and data security. Its purpose is to spread knowledge of IT and to provide a source of electronic addresses.( http://www.sito.se/defeng-1.htm )

The Multimedia Producers Association, Promise, is a non-profit member association with approximately 100 member companies, who all are active in the PROMISE ambition to develop a Swedish Multimedia production industry through education, experience exchange and marketing. PROMISE is also the communication channel between the multimedia producers, the Government, Government agencies and other stakeholder groups which influences the member organisations' production environment in areas such as IPR on pictures, music and text ( http://www.promise.se/promise/ ).

The Swedish Multimedia Users Association, Multimediaföreningen, is a non-profit organisation for people and organisations with special interest in multimedia. SMF was created in 1988 as a people-network with the purpose to share knowledge and 'latest news' on multimedia. ( www.multimediaforeningen.se/)

Besides the 'normal' commercial activities of production companies there are also a number of features of such organisations relevant to mention here. One such feature is that there is an increasing trend of active involvement of MM/IT companies in university research another feature is their increased involvement in public initiatives. The free-of-charge access to commercial software for schools is one example and the gift of Java-development tools to schools from another software producer is another example.

 Telia ( www.skolinternet.telia.se)

A new major actor within the educational material market is the telecom operators, both entering into the Swedish market from abroad or operating domestically as the state-owned telecommunication company Telia. Telia has, outside its traditional sphere of distributing telephone services, put a lot of effort into Internet-based web services, both for the home market and the business market. Telia has also a large web-based service aimed at the Swedish youth school, named Telia internet@school. Here one can find subject-related help for teachers, meeting places, course suggestions. They have also started publication of CD-ROM products aimed at schools as well as development of software tools specifically addressing the educational market, like the Web Education.

Telia has created a special fund, The Educational Media Fund, that supports and stimulates the production of new interactive, computer-based teaching materials for elementary schools and gymnasiums. The fund was started in 1995 with a total of 45 million SEK. In September 1997, after the fund was closed for new applications, about 500 applications were submitted and 120 projects had been granted funding. Variety has been one of the foundation’s goals and one has strived for differentiation among the projects ( direction, working methods, presentation forms, student participation.) Many of the projects have been smaller projects developed in school environments.

Computer companies have been involved on a local level in different projects. Their contribution has generally been with hardware and software to individual projects, schools and institutions. In co-operation with the City of Stockholm and the National Agency for Education, Microsoft and Compaq are running a 3 year project in which IT is used as a lever for the development of a suburb of Stockholm and the local school. In the first phase, teachers will be trained in software and how to use a computer in the classroom, in the second phase how to use IT in a daily situation as an educational aid, and during the third phase how to use IT to reach out from the classroom and involve the near community in different projects involving teachers, students and parents.

Microsoft is also running a Library On-line project with several libraries in Sweden with the purpose of establishing the library as the digital information center and extending the use of IT to all strata in society.

One condition for multimedia usage is access to computers. In Swedish schools, access has increased drastically during the past few years. The latest available statistics are from a large survey carried out by Statistic Sweden in 1995 on commission from the National Agency for Education. Newer survey, however implemented on a smaller scale indicates that it is reasonable to estimate that the increase of computers in schools continues at an increasing level for every year. The figures below are on average for the entire country. Responsibility for schools has become decentralised to local communities and provinces in Sweden. Cost per student is mainly the same throughout the country but there are still local differences in how the costs are distributed between educational textbooks/material, equipment, premises, etc.

Most schools had access to CD-ROM already in 1995. The number of schools connected to the Internet is rapidly growing. On the National Agency for Education’s School Computer Network the schools which have been listed with their e-mail address have increased approximately 25% within one year, and the main part of the schools have their own web sites. Previously it was more common with Internet access among secondary schools than primary schools. This unbalance is rapidly changing to the reverse. Previously computers were in special computer rooms but it is becoming praxis to have them in ordinary classrooms. These computers are increasingly being student-managed.

Local communities have a responsibility to produce an IT strategy for the implementation of IT in the local schools, including teacher training as a central task. The dominating usage of IT in schools is for word processing and for collecting information resources from the Web. The extent of multimedia usage is still proportionally low, and has no comparison with the education initiatives taking place within the industry. Most likely, this is caused by the fact that schools have very limited capabilities to make 'external purchases'. Some companies in the multimedia production market start consider the educational sector as a 'no market'. Special deals for school usage are becoming increasingly common. Site licenses for schools are such a special arrangement: a single CD-ROM can cover an entire school’s need of this product if it is accepted to be installed on the school’s network. Several traditional publishers sell site licenses for schools.

Hybrid products are growing popular. The traditional publishing companies have several types of Internet services tied to their products. Textbooks are still used as a base and Internet is used to give updated information, assignments, links, etc. Such dual-delivery mode has become more and more common. Some products are only available on-line.

There is a great interest among teachers to use multimedia products. But it is still a new media and they lack of experience in integrating 'old' and 'new' learning tools. Lack of money in the schools is also often used as excuses for delays in the change from traditional habits to new teaching approaches. It is also tough for many teachers to keep informed about the availability of products, information resources and their content. There is a strong demand for information brokerage.

The number of computers in Swedish homes has increased dramatically during the past few years. Several surveys show that more than 50% of the households have a home computer, and 70% of these are assumed to be multimedia computers. Approximately 50% of these have Internet access. This implies that 33% of the total number of Swedish households have Internet access an increase from 10% in 1997 and the dramatic increase from 3% since April 1996. A new study is being made in May-98, and the result of this study will be available on http://www.relevantknowledge.se

The current information indicates that there is no slowdown in the numbers of computers households buy. A study done during the Spring of 1997 showed that 21% of the Swedish households planned to buy a computer within the year, an increase from 1996, which had a 13%. The usage of more than one computer per household is also becoming increasingly common in the upper part of the social strata.

Sales of multimedia products ( CD-ROM) to households greatly increased from 1996 to 1998 but this increase came mainly from purchase of foreign products. Several Swedish publishing companies are making CD products that lay within the twilight zone of educational multimedia and edutainment. These products are aimed at both schools and homes, but is it mainly hold to homes, and not as 'hot-cakes'.

Sweden is a small market and with the current costs for production of quality multimedia CD-ROM products, the only possibility for success is getting out of the home market. Up to now, sales of domestic multimedia products has only increased slightly with the number of computers being sold to the home market. It is also most plausible to assume that the largest market for Swedish educational multimedia products are within the international market. A sell of 5000 copies in Sweden is considered as very good number.

There is a strong parental interest to buy domestically produced quality pedagogical products for their children. Swedes are also interested in using their home computers to further educate themselves. Language programs are an example of this. A survey from July, 1997 states that home computers are used in the following manner: 66% for personal use, 36% for computer games, 33% for education, information, hobby, 27% use them for work taken home from the workplace, 21% for Internet usage, and 19% for school assignments. The availability of Internet-based information and learning resources seems, however, to absorb much of this potential customer markets pull. The introduction of electronic commerce, and particularly on-line micro-transactions may in a very near future drastically modify the market configurations outlined here.

A survey carried out in 1994 revealed that business and public organisations are extremely interested in staff training, and using modern technology to carry the training. Many companies in different branches are today using educational multimedia for staff they're training. This market has existed several years and is a rapidly growing market. Many larger companies already produce their own software for staff training - primarily on CD-ROM. Multimedia is used both as a simulation tool within technical areas, where training and education is done on the computer. Multimedia is also used as a tool for further education within different specialised areas, for example, some trade unions have used multimedia as a large-scale tool for supporting and training local trade union representatives.

Banks, insurance companies, telecommunication companies, the Swedish Armed Forces, drug companies, etc are all examples of branches that extensively use multimedia as an educational tool for staff training. The great possibilities of computer simulation training is one of the advantages that companies point out, not only for technical training classes but even for companies who wish to train their employees in communication skills. Technology-intensive companies are huge users of these types of multimedia products where the rapid changes in technical knowledge are accelerating and employees must be continuously updated.

The most common distribution form of multimedia today is CD-ROMs, even if Intranet is rapidly eating itself into this market. A training course based on CD-ROMs is often supported by a connection to a resource center with teacher contact and conferences via Internet. Local study groups connected to a resource center is also a possibility. There is a strong belief in this form of education, but it is still viewed as a complement to the traditional educational/training classes and not as a replacement to further training. The advantages named by these companies are that training becomes more effective and efficient. The evaluations that have been done point out that employee learn faster and remember better. A 50% cut in number of hours spent on training has been noted, compared to traditional training classes. Participants also often express that this kind of training is more fun. For larger companies, it is also a profitable form of educating its employees. Even if productions are expensive, the costs are quickly recovered by training many people. One example of a company that started in the early 1990’s by developing their own multimedia training material is Apoteksbolaget, the National co-operation of Swedish Pharmacists. They have made CD-ROM based programs about different illnesses. Training has been done during work hours and been scheduled. Personnel groups have been divided into groups of two for the training classes. Evaluations have shown that this form of education was highly appreciated. The fact that this company has 90% women and with the average age around 50 years - is putting this type of education in an interesting perspective for other companies with similar kind of employee profiles.

The larger Swedish companies have been using multimedia in staff training for several years. They have documented results and are becoming professional in handling contracts, producing programs, etc. More and more companies are using educational multimedia as a natural part of their long-term employee training programs.