The processes of implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) into education are culturally and contextually sensitive. In this paper we offer an insight into these processes in the Czech Republic, a post-communist country in which the Velvet Revolution in 1989 allowed for a democratic development as well as for the exposure to and contact with western cultures. By means of an analysis of educational journals, we capture the pace and dynamics of the processes of integrating ICT in education in the Czech Republic. In the end we offer a comparison with selected studies that analyzed the same phenomena within other, predominantly western, countries.

In this paper we build on our previous research focused on the use of ICT in education in the Czech Republic which we presented at both international (e.g. Šeďová & Zounek 2008; Zounek 2012; Zounek & Šeďová 2007) and local (Tůma 2012) conferences.

In this paper we focus on professional educational media (both printed and electronic) published in the Czech Republic. We suppose that media considerably influence the formation of ideas, beliefs or expectations in the persons involved in school education (and in ICT). Signals that media send through their messages to their readers can be considered to be one of the key factors of successful integration of ICT into education. Therefore media are one of information channels (possibly the most important one) by means of which persons involved in school education can create their ideas about the possible uses of ICT in schools. Furthermore, media provide the readers with information about political, social and economic contexts of the implementation of ICT into education.

From a research perspective, media allow researchers and specialists to communicate by publishing reviews, theoretical and empirical studies as well as texts informing readers about new approaches to using ICT in teaching and learning processes. This way professional media provide space not only for theoretical discussions, but also for publishing the results of empirical research or developmental activities and projects. Therefore media reflect the state of the art of a part of the educational reality. Clearly, an analysis of media messages can significantly contribute to the understanding of implementation of ICT into education.

In this paper we take the above-mentioned characteristics and functions of professional media into consideration and answer the question whether and how the processes of implementation of ICT into education in the Czech Republic were reflected in Czech educational journals in the years 1990–2012, i.e. within the democratic development of the country. Since no educational journal specializing in ICT is published in the Czech Republic, five most important general-educational journals were subject to our examination. The aims of the research were to analyze the topics to which the media paid attention, to identify theoretical positions of the authors, to classify empirical research studies and to describe their methodologies. We also analyzed the journal sections dedicated to discussions and book reviews. This way we attempt to give a complex picture of ICT in education in the Czech Republic since 1990.

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