In addition, computers and other advanced technologies are being updated so quickly that when schools make large equipment purchases the depreciation rate is brutal. Thus, schools are searching for other ways to provide technical learning time to students and teachers. Colleges and universities are not updating their equipment or software fast enough to stay abreast of the training needs for beginning teachers or for preparing professionals in other fields. Therefore, those entering the teaching profession are not skilled in applying technologies in the classroom. As these institutions wait to replace aging equipment and services, more and more future teachers and information technologists receive inadequate training.
Many colleges provide Internet training for faculty.
These training sessions illustrate good research techniques to use when searching the Internet. However, some colleges are reluctant to invest the funds into such programs. In the corporate arena, the most critical demand for new technology personnel is in the area of information technology. In 1998, I interviewed 25 top Omaha executives to discover whether the colleges and high schools of the nation were technologically preparing students appropriately. The old mainframe programming skills were still seen as a need, but not as great as those that could build Web pages and implement an E-commerce process for transacting business.