Introduction

In the history of education, the material environment is studied frequently. In the nineteenth century classrooms we see clear pedagogical objectives. There was the blackboard, the school desks, didactical material stored in the cupboards, and the didactic plates covering the walls. This specific material setting was orienting pedagogical practice. The blackboard oriented the space and was the privileged place of knowledge transfer. Recently, ICT is influencing the way the educational process is organized spatially. The educational space and educational practice is transformed by the new didactic means such as digital projectors, smart boards, computers and the internet. Some of these transformations are perceivable in the classroom as a physical material setting. In his influential essay ‘Art and Agency’ the anthropologist Alfred Gell explained how artifacts and the physical surroundings act upon human beings. His anthropological theory makes clear that we not only act upon the inert, material environment, but also inversely. The physical surroundings also act upon the users of the environment.

 In this study we investigate how ICT as a new didactic means restructures the classroom as a material and spatial setting. In this manner, we examine how ICT reorganizes educational practice. 

References A. Gell (1998). Art and Agency. An anthropological theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lawn M., Grosvenor I., Rousemare K. (ed.). (2005). Silences and Images: the social history of the classroom. Oxford: Symposium Books; and Lawn M. (ed.) Modelling the Future: Exhibitions and the Materiality of Education. Oxford: Symposium Books.