A grid for learning or a grid for earning? The significance of the Learning Grid initiative in UK education

The recent ‘National Grid for Learning’ initiative forms one of the flagship policies of the new Labour administration yet, as with the vast majority of educational computing, has remained largely uncontested. This paper therefore examines the key aspects of the Learning Grid initiative in the wider context of the global economic construction of the Information Superhighway. In particular the popular claims that the Learning Grid will provide schools with free access to a vast wealth of information as well as reducing existing inequalities in education are challenged in the light of the inherent commercial nature of the emerging Information Superhighway.