Flexibel utbildning i gymnasieskolan : Utvidgade klassrum och minskad transaktionell distans

Sammanfattning: During the 1990s radical reforms were effected in the Swedish school, at the same time as computerizing and the use of Internet increased considerably. The thesis discusses the dynamics and uncertainty that arise when changes and new technique appear in school and shall be combined with already ongoing works of change. Technological solutions in school have been tried from time to time, often with less success than expected.The fact that the Swedish upper secondary school at the turn of the millennium re-cruits practically all the comprehensive school students, has led to the completion of traditional teaching methods with methods that satisfy a greater variety of the students’ study fitness. In this thesis a number of teachers have shown how they, by means of the ICT, have formed a flexible education, built on a combination of traditional classroom teaching and elements of distance education.By introducing a distribution of work between teachers and students, based on the idea that the students will take greater responsibility for their studies, the traditional teaching hours have been reduced by 35-40 per cent for these students. Teachers and students plan the work together and the students then execute the plans rather independ-ently. This form of work gives the students opportunity to develop their autonomy but also assumes this being developed. The time that the teachers do not spend on classroom teaching is used for individual teaching in terms of individual discussions or group dis-cussions. This change in the use of time can be described in terms of dialogue and structure and have been analysed in terms of transactional distance. Individualization can be accomplished by increased dialogue thereby reducing the transactional distance. This form of work makes the students more visible to the teachers. The ICT here plays a role that could be described by one teacher’s remark: "The less we see of the students, the more we get to know them". The use of the ICT also takes part in the reducing of the transactional distance.