Has ICT come of age? Recurring debates on the role of ICT in education, 1982–2004

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has now been used in science and technology education, and in other areas of the curriculum, for over 20 years. ICT has been introduced into school education through a series of heavily funded government initiatives since the launch of microcomputers into schools in 1981. This spate of initiatives has involved a mixture of hardware, software and teacher‐training, though not always in a coordinated fashion. A number of issues raised by the advent of ICT have specific relevance to those involved in science and technology education at all levels, but equally, the issues and debates highlighted in this paper are of a generic nature and are applicable to ICT use across the curriculum. I argue that the debates raised by ICT use fall into three categories: the vocational, the pedagogical and the societal. These debates are likely to be perennial and recurring, whatever the advancement made in the technology itself.