8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 1/17

INET Conferences

Physical or Virtual Networks?Connecting Swedish Schools to

the Internet

Johan GROTH <johan.groth@gogab.se>National Agency for Education and ISOC-SESweden

Abstract

Between 1994 and 1998 the use of information technology, especiallyInternet, has rocketed in Swedish K12-schools. The SwedishSchoolnet, which is a national effort to encourage schools to takeadvantage of Internet as a pedagogical tool, has played an importantpart in this development. The project is run by the National Agency for Education on commission by the Ministry of Education and Science.The work is characterized by a "content driven" approach, i.e., themain role of the project is to increase the amount of, for schools, usefulcontent on Internet and thereby, indirectly, stimulate the use of new

tools and media. This is opposed to a "material" approach characterizedby government subsidies for hardware, software and Internet accessand/or direct government involvement as an Internet service provider for the educational sector. The work has been most successful. Today amajority of the Swedish schools regularly use Internet for communication and to find and/or publish information.

Contents

• Introduction •

The Swedish school system • Early efforts with IT in Swedish schools • A government commission • The Swedish Schoolnet today • The European Schoolnet • Discussion • What lies in the future? 

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 2/17

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 3/17

schools are the headmasters. The funding of the schools is a matter for the local school boards. There is one school board in eachmunicipality, of which there are 288 in Sweden. About 3 percent of thepupils go to private schools. These schools have their own school

boards but receive their funding from the local authorities. There areapproximately 6,000 schools in Sweden.

On a national level there is a division of responsibility between theMinistry of Education and Science and the National Agency for Education. The ministries in Sweden are small and have few operativefunctions. These functions lie with government agencies staffed withnonpolitical civil servants. An agency acts both on specific commissionfrom the ministry and on its own initiatives within the framework setup by the ministry. The National Agency for Education is responsiblefor preschools, K-12 schools, and parts of the nonacademic higher 

education. The agency acts through active follow-up, evaluation,development, research, and supervisory programs.

Early efforts with IT in Swedish schools

During the last decade and a half, Sweden has carried out a number of activities aiming at taking advantage of the new technology, firstcomputers only and now the Internet. In the mid-80s the governmentspent 60 million SEK on computer hardware. The municipalities couldreceive funding provided they put in at least an equal amount of moneyand bought one of the computers that had been approved by the

government. After the campaign, most lower secondary schools hadeight computers in a local network.

At the end of the 80s, the DOS-project was initiated (DOS stands for Datorn och Skolan -- the Computer and the School). The emphasis wasnow put on software rather than hardware. The three-year effortcomprised 160 projects involving different groups of pupils, differentsubjects, and about 800 teachers. Around the same time a softwaredevelopment and exchange program was started on a Nordic level.Each country developed a number of pedagogical applications thatwere then translated into the other Nordic languages. This was an effort

to increase the number of applications with a "Nordic touch."

The situation in the fall of 1993 can be summarized in the followingway [4, 5]. After spending approximately 500 million SEK of state andmunicipal funding during a period of ten years, there wereapproximately 38 pupils per computer in compulsory school and 10pupils per computer in upper secondary school. Most computers wereplaced in special computer rooms and therefore not readily accessible

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 4/17

for teachers and pupils. Few, if any, schools used the Internet. Anumber of teachers used computers for word processing, spreadsheets,etc., but there was limited knowledge on how to use the computer as atool integrated in the pedagogical work.

Then, in November 1993, the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland,Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) and the three self-governing Nordicregions (Greenland, the Åland Islands, and the Faroe Isles) decided tocreate a Nordic school data network (ODIN) [6]. This was a naturalstep in the development of cooperation between Nordic schools andeducational agencies. The decision was made that ODIN should bebased on the techniques and standards used on the Internet. In 1993only a handful of schools in the Nordic countries (with the exception of Iceland, where a majority of schools were connected) had access to theInternet and there were few, or no, Internet service providers (ISPs)

who directed their business toward other areas than academia or largecompanies. The decision was, as we know now, most forward-looking.The fact that eight regions and countries were able to reach politicalagreement on a common infrastructure is also noteworthy.

If one wants to specify a date when the Internet was introduced into theSwedish K-12 system, March 8, 1994, is a good choice. During ameeting of the Nordic council in Stockholm, the ministers of theNordic countries used e-mail to communicate with a few schools ineach of the countries. They could also view half a dozen Web pagesdescribing the Nordic countries and their educational systems written

by staff at the Swedish University Network (SUNET). After themeeting, the Swedish government had to address the fact that therewere very few teachers, school leaders, and decision makers who knewwhat the Internet was and how it could be used in an educationalcontext. However, there were experience and knowledge available todraw upon. First, there was SUNET, which for many years had beenthe Internet provider for the Swedish universities. Second, there werethe telecommunication companies, among which Tele2, a privatecompany, had been the first to provide a commercial IP service inSweden. Third, there were a handful of teachers who had alreadyworked with the Internet or other computer-based communication andinformation systems.

A typical example of such a pioneer is Benny Regnér, a teacher insocial sciences at an upper secondary school outside Stockholm. Hehad been sending e-mail to USA via a BBS-system since 1985. In 1990his school was included in the AT&T Learning Circle project, whichimproved communication. A couple of years later, Mr. Regnér wasintroduced to the Internet by an American colleague in Santa Clara,

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 5/17

California. Here, for the first time, was a communications system thatwas simple, flexible, reliable, and truly global.

In early spring of 1994, Mr. Peter Karlberg and the author, both at that

time at the Ministry of Education and Science, prepared a documentdescribing how the schools should be introduced to the Internet. Twomain questions were addressed: who should do the work and howshould it be done? Two routes were possible. The first was a "material"approach characterized by government subsidies for hardware,software, and Internet access and/or direct government involvement asan ISP for the educational sector (e.g., via universities, nationalagencies, or state-owned telecommunication companies). This wouldbe in line with earlier efforts to introduce IT in schools. The other,"immaterial," approach is characterized by no government involvementexcept when it comes to spreading information, enhancing awareness,

stimulating cooperation, presenting good examples, and encouragingdevelopment and new ideas. The second approach can also be labeled"content driven" in that the main role of the government is to increasethe amount of, for schools, useful content on the Internet, therebyindirectly stimulating the use of new tools and media. In the finalcommission to the National Agency for Education, the "content-driven" approach was chosen.

A government commission

The Swedish School Computer Network (henceforth the Swedish

Schoolnet) [7] was the name given to the Agency's work. The termnetwork should here, in accordance with the "immaterial" approach,not be interpreted as a physical network connecting schools to theInternet. It should, instead, be understood as a base for systematiccooperation between teachers, students, administrators, teacher trainers, researchers, and educational institutions, primarily in, but alsooutside, Sweden. Of course the project's Web site is a focus point andan easily available visualization of how the Internet can be used.

In line with the content-driven approach, four services wereimmediately set up on the Internet. These were (1) a database of 

Swedish schools with Web and/or e-mail addresses; (2) dedicatedconferences (news and mailing lists); (3) a list of selected links; and (4)examples of projects and good practices of using the Internet in school.The next step was to gain more knowledge about how the Internetcould be used in schools. This was done through an open process inwhich schools were encouraged to take part. The interest wasoverwhelming and in the end 40 pilot schools were selected. Theschools represented all grades from 1 to 12, were situated from Kiruna

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 6/17

in the north to Helsingborg in the south, and had varying degrees of knowledge about the Internet. Enthusiasm and a will to be part of thedevelopment work was what counted. Contact was also made with the,at that time, four major ISPs (Tele2, France Telecom/Global One,

Telia, and Dialog). They were offered a role in the project, whichwould provide a good opportunity to learn more about the schools andwhat type of services they needed. In return, each company promisedto provide about ten schools each with a free Internet connection for aperiod of 1.5 years (the first phase of the project). The schools wereconnected in various ways, from simple modem dial-up to 64 kB lines.Software and hardware companies like Sun Microsystems, ICL (nowFujitsu), and Microsoft also took part on similar conditions.

The pilot schools were to use the Internet in ten pedagogical projects,of which the first was to make a school home page on the Web. The

other projects all involved other partners, e.g., an author of children'sbooks, the Youth Environment Parliament, and the Swedish Militaryand Civil Defence. An interesting aspect of these projects was that theschools in a natural way collaborated with expertise outside theschoolhouse.

The collaboration with the author deserves a more detailed description."The Writers Den" [8] engaged 600 pupils in grades 4-6 who, under the guidance of Lasse Ekholm, an author of children's books, wroteessays and a book together. Using the Internet, the pupils and their teachers interacted with Lasse Ekholm via the Web and e-mail,fetching exercises and drawing from his experience. The children thenwrote their own essays, which were discussed over e-mail and

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 7/17

presented on the Web. The main advantage of this way of working wasthat the schools could interact with an expert for a longer period of time and still keep costs down. Also, it is a problem in school to studyone subject all day for several days, which is somewhat of a necessity

if the expert has traveled to the school. With the Internet, an initialmeeting to discuss the framework of the project can be followed by alonger period of "low impact" interaction, which gives the pupils moretime to think, reflect, and work at their own tempo on the project.

To ensure a continuous and strong exchange of experience andknowledge, the Agency gathered the pilot schools and the industrialpartners once per semester. The meetings contained presentations of new services and techniques as well as workshops where the schoolsand companies could discuss technological and pedagogical problems.This "coaching" of the pilot schools proved to be very effective.

Drawing on experiences from the work with the pilot schools, theproject members prepared general information material about theInternet and the project that was distributed to all schools. The projectmembers also spent many days traveling through Sweden, talking toteachers, school leaders, and decision makers. This part of the work,being "missionaries" and doing a lot of down-to-earth footwork, wasvery important in order to distribute knowledge and information on anational, and yet personal, level.

A last, but not least, important task was to create even more content.

This was done in two ways: contact was made with various contentproviders and new content was created directly by the project group.The content providers were found among organizations, governmentbodies, museums, companies, etc. In some cases (like newspaper archives) the providers possessed plenty of content but were unawareof what the schools needed or wanted and/or of the development of theInternet. In many of these cases a meeting started a process that led tomore content being made available on the Internet. In other cases thecontent provider was involved in a collaborative project in whichschools were encouraged to take part. An example of this was theHistoric Museum in Stockholm which, together with the pilot schools,made a Web-based multimedia teaching material.

In yet other cases completely new content was created. Two rather simple, but successful, examples are the two Internet-based coursesdeveloped by the Agency together with Mr. Mikael Eriksson,Linköping University, and Mr. Pär Lannerö, the Royal Institute of Technology. Mr. Eriksson created a Web-based course on how to writeHTML. This course is used by many schools as an introduction on how

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 8/17

to present information on the Internet. Even more popular was the Webcourse "Ett smultronställe för Internetblåbär" (smultronställe = placewhere wild strawberries grow, i.e., a pleasant place; blåbär = blueberry,i.e., a person with limited knowledge) [9]. This course was developed

as an introduction to the Internet for those with no previous experienceor knowledge of the Internet. The course was an immediate successand is used extensively, and not only by teachers. Another popular service is the digital dictionary [10]. The Agency owns the copyright toseveral dictionaries, and the English-Swedish one was entered into adatabase and given a Web interface. This simple application is a usefulexample of how old functions can be carried out in a new way.

Two more extensive examples are Musiknet [11] and IKON [12]. Herethe goal is to create two completely new pedagogical resources.Musiknet is a collaboration between the Agency, the Royal University

College of Music, Tele2, Sun Microsystems, and Fujitsu. Musiknet is afoundation focusing on teacher training, distance education, newtechniques for media transmission, etc. Three important activitieswithin Musiknet are Klavinet, Ljud, and IMP. Klavinet offers pianolessons over the Internet using MIDI-files. Ljudo is a free database of sounds collected by professionals and pupils. In IMP, high schoolpupils not only make their own media productions but also build their own virtual media production companies in collaboration with expertsin the field. IKON is a collaboration among the Agency, the Museumof Modern Arts in Stockholm, the University College of Arts, Crafts,and Design, the Royal University College of Fine Arts, and the

ArtNode Foundation. Both projects create new content, initiate newprojects, and collaborate with schools in different activities. They havetheir own funding, etc., but remain in close contact with the Agency.

The obstacles facing the project during the initial phase were of threedifferent types. The first was real, and often technical, problems. Suchproblems have always been solved faster and simpler than could havebeen imagined. The second was related to the experience andknowledge among the users. How does one present a new pedagogicaltool to someone who doesn't understand the words you are using? Thethird type had to do with lack of vision. Many people said, "Access istoo expensive and bandwidth is too small." Such pessimism alwaysturned out to be unnecessary. Hardware and software become moreuser-friendly and cheaper. The bandwidth increases steadily. Theanswers to all objections were content, content, and content. The mosteffective way of creating interest within a group is to show that thereare gains to be made for that group.

In parallel with the work carried out by the Agency, many others

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 9/17

(schools, organizations, companies, etc.) started to use the Internet andproduced material of interest for schools. Thus, many processes werein action at the same time, inspiring each other. The development of useful tools and services on the Internet for schools has been, and is

still, a decentralized process with, in most cases, a very clear bottom-up approach.

The Swedish Schoolnet today

Today the Swedish Schoolnet is an integrated part of the Agency'swork within the field of school development. The Schoolnet projectconsists of many activities on and off the Internet. It plays a part notonly in the introduction of the Internet into schools but also as a forumfor developing other aspects of the future school system. Its resourcesare readily available to anyone with Internet access and an interest in

the Internet as a pedagogical tool. The project's Web site is well knownand popular, not only within the school system. Suffice it to say thatthe site has about 40,000 "readings" per day, which approximatelyequals the number of readings on the Web sites of major Swedishnewspapers.

During 1998 the site will become even more interactive. A first step isthe Newsroom, where articles about advances in technology, projects,pedagogical developments, questions pertaining to administrative andorganizational matters, etc., are posted on a daily basis. Each article isconnected to a Web conference where further discussions may take

place.

The project members continue to give lectures and courses and serve asinitial project coordinators. The project also continuously spreadsinformation about IT and the Internet in schools through an electronicnewsletter and the magazine "Klassrum direkt" ("Classroom online"),[13] which is available both in digital form and on paper.

The four original services are still available, as are those that have beendeveloped during the past years. One of the original services, the list of school Web addresses [14], is still popular, as are the digital

dictionaries where more languages will be continuously added.Another popular service is "The Link Cupboard" [15], a Web-basedschool library, i.e., a collection of carefully selected and annotatedlinks.

Model projects continue to play an important role in the SwedishSchoolnet. Two recent additions are Sputnik [16], a virtual magazinefor teenagers written by pupils at ten Swedish schools and two schools

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 10/17

in the United States, in collaboration with the Swedish dailyAftonbladet and Stockholm University, and Planeten [17], a forum for children between six and ten where extensive use is being made of CUSee Me.

Two other projects that are somewhat more loosely connected to theAgency's work within the field of IT are MIT and the Rågsved project.MIT, which also involves the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)and Fredrika Bremer School, aims at increasing interest in higher studies among children from a municipality where relatively fewpersons have a university degree. To break the feeling that studying ata university is strange or odd, the pupils are offered a course inenvironmental sciences at KTH. The students all have portablecomputers and attend classes both at KTH and Fredrika Bremer. Theyuse the Internet for information retrieval, for dedicated discussion

groups, etc. The Rågsved project proposes to connect Rågsved schoolwith the homes of the pupils, many of whom are immigrants. Animportant role is played by teachers who work with the children intheir native tongue and who now will have a new way of communicating with the families. Perhaps it will also be possible tobreak the isolation into which many immigrants may fall, not least dueto the language problem. The project involves, among others, Rågsvedschool, the public housing cooperations in the area, the Swedish TradeUnion Confederation, Stjärn TV (a cable TV company), Microsoft,Sun, Compaq, and local enterprises.

Another recent addition to the Swedish Schoolnet is The MultimediaBureau, which is the result of another government commission. Thegoal here is to create a center for development of IT-based teachingmaterial. The center will organize courses and seminars, createreference material, etc. Material created by individual teachers andpupils and presented on the Internet will be an important output.

Last, but not least, the Swedish Schoolnet coordinates the Swedishactivities during European Netd@ys (to be held in October each year starting in 1997).

In conclusion, the Swedish Schoolnet continues to develop, keeping itstarget groups (primarily pupils, teachers, and school leaders inSweden's K-12 schools, but also parents, policy makers, and othersinterested in educational matters) informed about the development of the Internet and its use in a school context.

The European Schoolnet

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 11/17

The work with the Swedish Schoolnet has also taken on a Europeandimension in that Sweden has proposed the construction of a EuropeanSchoolnet [18]. The project is an initiative "to contribute to theimplementation of the Action Plan 'Learning in the Information

Society' presented by the [European] Commission in 1996. TheEuropean Schoolnet consortium includes all Member States of theEuropean Union and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland of the EFTAcountries. Countries of Central and Eastern Europe will be invited tojoin the project" [19]. The overall aim of the project is "to establish aEuropean school information network as a multimedia andcommunications platform as well as a framework for (1) collaborationbetween schools in Europe; (2) high-quality information services witha pedagogical content and representing a European added value; (3)cooperation at a European level among national education authorities,universities, and industry to develop ICT in schools as regards content,

pedagogical approaches, and technology; and (4) professionaldevelopment of teachers, in particular as regards the use of ICT inteaching and learning."

This project is in many ways modeled on the Swedish Schoolnet andODIN. During its initial phase (ending around summer 1998), theproject is headed, staffed, and mostly financed by Sweden. After thisinitial phase a more permanent organization reflecting the project'sEuropean dimension will be set up. The work follows the content-driven approach. The services offered by the EUN include interactivecourses, a virtual teachers' college with forums and libraries, a pen-pal

corner, a collection of European projects, and a virtual school whereteachers may find subject-related resources.

Discussion

The Swedish Schoolnet has now been running for about four years. Acrude (since it doesn't say anything about how the Internet is actuallyused) measure of success is that today about 1,500 schools have their own Web services, i.e., are not only information users but alsoinformation producers on the Internet. Preliminary statistics (full reportin late spring of 1998) from the National Agency for Education show

that nearly all secondary schools as well as a majority of the primaryschools are connected to the Internet. Since only a handful of schoolswere connected in 1995, it is a promising development. Also, it is clear that the use of the Internet as a pedagogical tool has soared in the lastfew years and that it has affected the K-12 schools in many ways. For one thing, it is clear from many visits and discussions that thecomputer and computer-mediated communication and informationexchange have, at last, become a natural pedagogical tool. Such a

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 12/17

development would not have happened in a time of cutbacks in publicspending had not pupils, teachers, and school leaders embraced andseen the advantages of this new tool. The Internet has obviouslybrought advantages that appeal to new groups of teachers such as

language and social science teachers.

It is interesting to note that the Internet has also served as a catalyst for other changes in the school system. Sometimes in parallel with andsometimes in the wake of the introduction of the Internet, greatchanges have taken place in such areas as teachers' salaries, content of work for teachers, pedagogical practices, how schools are built, etc.Organizational and administrative routines in schools, municipalschool boards, and national educational bodies are also affected. Inmany cases these changes might very well have taken place withoutcomputers (e.g., working in projects, with problem-based learning,

with individual study plans, etc.). Why these changes gainedmomentum at the same time as the Internet was introduced and whichchange came first is hard to say. Sometimes it seems that other reformsare carried through "disguised" as "IT in schools." This might implythat these other reforms may now be implemented with less discussionand preparation than would have been the case at other times. On theother hand, it might imply that long-wanted changes that for one reasonor another have been hard to execute may now be carried out. In anycase, the pace has often been surprising, even for those involved.

What was the role and benefit of the Swedish Schoolnet and its

content-driven approach in this development? First, it should bepointed out that the content-driven approach was not chosen by chance.The method of giving examples instead of orders or directions is wellin line with the decentralized and goal-oriented organization of theSwedish school system. Also, the experiences of the earlier nationalefforts to introduce computer technology pointed to the limitations of amore material approach. The massive efforts of the 1980s had cost alot, and the long-term effects had proved to be small or even negligible.

With a material approach there is an obvious risk that the newhardware and software are not complemented by changes inpedagogical practices, administrative routines, and organizationalstructures [see, for example, 20]. In spite of this, in many countries thenational initiatives have a more material approach (e.g., the ministrybuys or subsidizes computers or Internet access). With such a systemthe danger is that the differences between the schools are not taken intoaccount, leading to less useful solutions at a local level. It appears thatthe material approach is often combined with a top-down method,while the content-driven approach relies much more on a bottom-up

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 13/17

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 14/17

pedagogical projects have been carried out, and many schools andteachers have with great creativity used IT to create better education.Even though many factors explain the development in Swedishschools, it is our belief that a national content-driven initiative is the

best way of connecting schools to the Internet and inspiring them tobegin taking advantage of the Internet as a pedagogical tool. Also, wefind to be important the fact that the use of the Internet in Swedishschools in most cases has originated in the needs, interests, andknowledge of individual teachers or groups of teachers. This "organicgrowth" is in many ways parallel to the structure of the Internet itself.

On the other hand, it may be argued that we have not fundamentallychanged anything and that the observed changes would have comeanyway, perhaps later, but they would have come. This might be true,but we believe that the fact that a government agency started to use the

Internet had an instrumental influence on when and how the Internetwas introduced into the schools. The Internet is today a widelyavailable tool used for many different tasks by all groups (pupils,teachers, administrators, etc.) in the schools. It could have become atool reserved for certain groups (e.g., high school teachers) and/or certain tasks (e.g., transferring data between the schools and the localauthorities) but it did not. This is the primary importance of theSwedish Schoolnet.

What lies in the future?

Today, in 1998, most practical or "material" questions connected to theuse of the Internet in schools have been solved. The "immaterial"questions--i.e., those of a social, cultural, ethical, and pedagogicalnature--are just now becoming visible. We believe that we will seeeven more profound changes in the educational system. With all theworld's information in your home computer, with the possibility toattend courses with the world's best teachers from your living room,why should anyone go to school (i.e., to the physical house) at all? In asituation where every pupil can interact with the world's foremostexperts in every field of knowledge, what is the role of teachers?

Other challenges include how teachers are to keep up with the rapiddevelopment of technology and the introduction of new ways of communicating and processing information. How are the schools tosolve the task of running large networks with many computers (theproblems are both technological and economic)? How are society andthe schools to cope with the questions that arise when information of literally all kinds is available to children? New thinking is requiredwith regard to teacher education, how schools are built and used (is it

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 15/17

reasonable to let the schools stand empty and unused except between 8a.m. and 4 p.m. for 40 weeks per year?), etc. The school as we know ittoday may very well disappear within a decade or two.

Last, it is quite clear that the Internet has many profound and deeper effects. How will distance learning (i.e., learning outside a commonsocial context), global communication (where you may know moreabout someone on the other side of the world than about your neighbor), and the increase of "virtual experiences" at the expense of "physical experiences" affect the human mind? It is impossible to sayas we stand at the doors of a brave, new, and hopefully better world.

References

1. The Swedish Ministry of Education and Sciences, 1994,

Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, Lpo 94,http://www.skolverket.se/d/nytt/lpo94/huvud.html (Webversion in Swedish only).

2. European Commission, 1996, Living and working in theinformation society: People first (Green Paper), ISBN 92-827-7869-X,http://www.ispo.cec.be/infosoc/legreg/docs/peopl1st.html 

3. The European Round Table of Industrialists, 1997, Investing inKnowledge,http://www.ert.be/4_public/full/edu_eur/cover.html 

4. The National Agency for Education, 1994, Skolans datorer, rep.

nr. 93:795. The National Agency for Education, 1994, Datorn i

undervisningen, rep. nr. 94:866. The Nordic Schoolnet (ODIN), http://www.odin.dk  7. The Swedish Schoolnet, http://www.skolverket.se/skolnet 8. The Swedish Schoolnet, The Writers Den,

http://www.skolverket.se/skolnet/projekt/skrivlya/lyahem1.html 9. Pär Lannerö and the National Agency for Education, 1997, Ett

smultronställe för Internetblåbär,http://www.skolverket.se/skolnet/smultron/ (an Englishtranslation is available on the European Schoolnet

http://www.eun.org/guide/)10. The Swedish Schoolnet, Dictionaries,

http://www.nada.kth.se/skolverket/lexin-en.html 11. Musiknet, http://www.musiknet.se/ 12. IKON, Interactive Art in School, http://www.ikonart.org/ 13. The Swedish Schoolnet, Classroom On-line,

http://www.skolverket.se/skolnet/klassrum/klassrum_en.html 14. The Swedish Schoolnet - School Addresses, http://

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 16/17

www.skolverket.se/skolnet/skoladresser/skoladresser_en.html 15. The Link Cupboard, http://munin.ub2.lu.se/skolverket/ 16. Sputnik, http://sputnik.aftonbladet.se/ 17. Planeten, http://www.hj.se/hlk/planeten/ 18. The European Schoolnet, http://www.eun.org 

19. The European Schoolnet, More about the EUN,http://www.eun.org/information/more.html 20. Magid, L. J., 1998, U.S. could learn from Europe's wiring of 

schools, CNN Interactive,http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9801/30/magid.netday

What is E-Cash?

E-Cash represents several different types of products. This section explores the

different types of e-cash products and how each functions. The pros

and cons of e-cash versus competing products is also examined.

While many different companies are rushing to offer digital money products, currently e-cash is cash is represented by two models. One is the on-line form of e-cash (introducedby DigiCash) which allows for the completion of all types of internet transactions. Theother form is off-line; essentially a digitially encoded card that could be used for many of the same transactions as cash. This off-line version (which also has on-line capabilities) isbeing tested by Mondex in partnership with various banks.

The primary function of e-cash is to facilitate transactions on the Internet. Many of thesetransactions may be small in size and would not be cost efficient through other paymentmediums such as credit cards. Thus, WWW sites in the future may charge $0.10 a visit,or $0.25 to download a graphics file. These types of payments, turning the Internet into atransaction oriented forum, require mediums that are easy, cheap (from a merchantsperspective), private (see Privacy), and secure (see Security). Electronic Cash is thenatural solution, and the companies that are pioneering these services claim that theproducts will meet the stated criteria. By providing this type of payment mechnism, theincentives to provide worthwhile services and products via the Internet should increase.Another prospective beneficiary from these developments would be Shareware providers,

since currently they rarely receive payments. To complete the digital money revolutionan offline product is also required for the pocket money/change that most people mustcarry for small transactions (e.g. buying a newspaper, buying a cup of coffee, etc...).

The concept of electronic money is at least a decade old. [Hewitt 1994] demonstrates thatcheck writing is a pre-cursor to E-cash. When one person writes a check on his bank account and gives the check to another person with an account at a different bank, thebanks do not transfer currency. The banks use electronic fund transfer. Electronic money,

8/7/2019 INET Conferences

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/inet-conferences 17/17

removes the middleman. Instead of requesting the banks to transfer the funds through themechnism of a check, the E-cash user simply transfers the money from his bank accountto the account of the receiver.

The reality of E-cash is only slightly more complicated, and these complications make

the transactions both secure and private. The user downloads electronic money from hisbank account using special software and stores the E-cash on his local hard drive. To paya WWW merchant electronically, the E-cash user goes through the software to pay thedesired amount from the E-cash "wallet" to the merchants local hard drive ("wallet") after passing the transaction through an E-cash bank for authenticity verification. Themerchant can then pay its bills/payroll with this E-cash or upload it to the merchant's hardcurrency bank account. The E-cash company makes money on each transaction from themerchant (this fee is very small, however) and from royalties paid by banks whichprovide customers with E-cash software/hardware for a small monthly fee. Transactionsbetween individuals would not be subject to a fee.

E-cash truly globalizes the economy, since the user can download money into his cyber-wallet in any currency desired. A merchant can accept any currency and convert it tolocal currency when the cybercash is uploaded to the bank account.

To the extent a user wants E-cash off-line, all that is necessary is smart card technology.The money is loaded onto the smartcard, and special electronic wallets are used tooffload the money onto other smartcards or directly to an on-line system. Smartcardshave been used successful in other countries for such transactions as phone calls for anumber of years. The money could also be removed from a smartcard and returned to abank account. Visa is developing a related product, the stored value card. This cardcomes in a variety of denominations, but functions more like a debit card than E-cash.

In essence, E-cash combines the benefits of other transaction mediums. Thus, it is similar to debit/credit cards, but E-cash allows individuals to conduct transactions with eachother. It is similar to personal checks, but it is feasible for very small transactions. Whileit appears superior to other forms, E-cash will not completely replace paper currency. Useof E-cash will require special hardware, and while most people will have access, not allwill. However, E-cash presents special challenges for the existing "middlemen" of thecurrent paper currency society. More and more, banks and other financial intermediarieswill serve simply as storehouses for money, lenders, and processing/verifying electronictransactions. Personal interaction with a teller, or even visits to a bank ATM will becomeobsolete. All one will have to do is turn on his computer.

[ E-Cash] [ Definition] [ Security] [ Privacy] [ Regulation] [ Sources]