The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Dutch education is lagging behind expectation and desire. Hence, the advisory ‘Commitee On Multimedia In Teacher Training’ (COMMITT, at present PROMMITT), established by the Dutch Minister of Education, has drawn up recommendations on the design of the learning process in the future and the role of ICT to support this process, with a focus on teacher training. The committee argues for a powerful role of teacher training in the process of educational innovation and the implementation of ICT. The teacher training institutes are providing the teachers of the future and the committee assumes that teachers are the keyfigures in arranging learning processes. The institutes, therefore, have to anticipate new developments and prepare prospective teachers for their future role. The nature and extent to which ICT is being used in education is considered to be a result of synergy between ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom up’ processes. In the latter especially, a contribution of the teacher training institutes can be expected. According to commit, teacher training institutes therefore have to shift their focus from dealing with present education to that of ‘future education’.

Within the PROMMITT action-programme, Stoas Research analyses the future educational practices of the vet-professional. Accordingly, teachers can be as much as possible prepared and thus, can encourage the implementation of ICT in secondary vocational education.

The main research question is: What is the teachers’ prospective role in a richly ICT-designed learning environment and what competences are required for this role?

1.2 Research questions

The following questions are posed in our study:

• What are the consequences of (the use of) ICT in occupational practice on the attainment targets and curriculum of secondary (agricultural) vocational education?
• What are the interactions between new educational insights and the use of ICT in educational practice?
• What are the consequences of an ‘ICT-integrated’ curriculum (in secondary vocational education) and the use of ICT on the job of the (future) vet professional?
• What is the new – ICT-integrated – job profile of the VET-professional, based on which the attainment targets and the curriculum of the teacher training can be altered?
• Before presenting the research methods and results, we will discuss the concept of a richly ICT-designed learning environment and the status quo of the use of ICT in Dutch vocational education.

1.3 ICT in dutch vocational education

ICT is a generic term referring to technologies which are being used for collecting, storing, editing and passing on information in various forms (SER, 1997). A personal computer is the best known example of the use of ICT in education, but the term multimedia is also frequently used. Multimedia can be interpreted as a combination of data carriers, for example video, CD-ROM, floppy disc and Internet and software in which the possibility for an interactive approach is offered (Smeets, 1996).

Generally, the following functions of the use of ICT in education are described in literature (SER, 1998, Moonen and Kommers, 1995, Pilot, 1998).

1.     ICT as object. It refers to learning about ICT. Mostly organised in a specific course. What is being learned depends on the type of education and the level of the students. Education prepares students for the use of ICT in education, future occupation and social life.

2.     ICT as an ‘assisting tool’. ICT is used as a tool, for example while making assignments, collecting data and documentation, communicating and conducting research. Typically, ICT is used independently from the subject matter.

3.     ICT as a medium for teaching and learning. This refers tot ICT as a tool for teaching and learning itself, the medium through which teachers can teach and learners can learn. It appears in many different forms, such as drill and practice exercises, in simulations and educational networks.

4.     ICT as a tool for organisation and management in schools.

In 1998, OCTO (a Dutch educational research institute) studied the extent in which ICT is actually being used for realising the above-mentioned functions. The research was carried out on all educational levels in The Netherlands. The present work concentrates on vocational education.

However, given the lack of a sufficient response, a reliable image for the entire sector cannot be given, but an impression of the status quo of the use of ICT in vocational education is possible. (Janssen Reinen, 1999). ICT is never being used as a (learning) objective by 33 of 55 teachers; 27 teachers do not use ICT as teaching material and 21 teachers do not use ICT as an aid. If the computer is being used, then this is mainly for the purpose of word processing and exercising the lessons. Thus, it seems that the computer is being used especially for supporting more traditional educational settings (Janssen Reinen, 1999).

We can conclude (present work and uncited literature) that ICT has many technical possibilities, but that the real innovative use of ICT is not broadly adopted in Dutch vocational education.

1.4 Research method

This paper will discuss the questions concerning ICT and education (not ICT in occupational practice). Several methods of data collection were used for this component of the project.

As described in the first paragraph, the main research question concerned the future learning environment and the teacher’s prospective role. To know more about this future, several scenarios on future developments in education have been studied. Because many scenarios have already been completed, we did not perform our own study, but used the available literature (e.g. Ter Woude, 1996, Van den Dool e.a., 1998, Pilot e.a., 1996). Published studies were scanned especially for the role and impact of ICT. Furthermore, experts were heard about this topic. We gathered additional information on the role of the teacher by visiting schools where ICT is already being used ‘extensively’. Information on organisational level was gathered and interviews were conducted with teachers. These interviews were aimed AT the teacher’s tasks, roles and required competences to fulfil these tasks and roles properly. In addition, literature on job profiles of teachers and implementation literature was studied.