Norway: 8 out of 10 students now have their own school devices

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Apart from private ones, it is the municipalities that have authority over the primary schools in Norway. Therefore, it is usually the municipalities that buy computer equipment for the students. The most commonly used solutions are:

• Google (Chromebook)
• Apple (iPad)
• Microsoft

Research, Innovation and Competence Development in Schools “FIKS”, a unit at the University of Oslo, has collected figures for the school year 2021-2022 on the type of devices different municipalities use.

In about half of the municipalities, two types of devices are used, often tablets for the younger pupils and a regular computer for the elderly. The other half use only tablets from the first grade to the tenth grade, or only the computer.

An overview of what kind of data solution different municipalities have chosen can be found here.

The list shows that Norwegian municipalities choose almost only American solutions. Some municipalities are registered with ‘tablets’ without having a named type. Feel free to let Barnevakten know if you know of a municipality that has not invested in Microsoft, Apple, or Google. We can inquire about the pros or cons of it.

On top of the American school solutions, installed inside you will often find the Norwegian solution Feide that is provided by the State. With it, the students can access 150 apps from different providers, among other things.

Photo: In the past, computer rooms were very common in schools. The machines were set up and within a day each computer was used by several users as different classes used the same room. Or there were sets of classes for some assigned computers and the teacher had to transport those to a suitable classroom together with extension cords. It was also important to mark the loan calendar to ensure that no other teachers brought the machines to their own classes at that time. But that time is over now in most of the schools. Soon all students in Norway will have their own school devices, which are also often taken in the backpack and used at home. (Photo: Shutterstock / Ben Schonewille.)

Some parents feel somewhat overwhelmed when schools hand out students with computers and tablets because parents may not be consulted for safety settings of the devices and also because those are often used at home too, not just for homework. School safety settings do not necessarily work when it is used at home.

Read more on Kids and Media

(Written on 10 November 2021 and translated by Ratan)

Utviklet som en del av Erasmus+ prosjektet «TeachingTools».