Added to this is the grave concern about the number of new teachers that will be needed over the years ahead. These new teachers must be adequately prepared as they come into the schools. Re-training new teachers as they walk in the door to their new jobs is not an acceptable solution. Discussion and written comments from the Deans Convocation indicate that there are several areas of serious concern that are close to universal among the deans attending the meeting. It was evident from comments at the meeting that most teacher training programs currently do not have a good teacher technology-training model in place.
Many colleges provide courses for students that focus primarily on specific technology skills.
How successful these efforts will be and how long this will take is unknown. One framework for teacher technology training that was highlighted during the Convocation was the Georgia InTech professional development model. This model, developed by the Georgia Department of Education and used as a base for in-services training of teachers in Georgia, received substantial interest from deans. This framework focuses on instructional goals and how to use technology to achieve student learning goals rather than to isolate technology or to focus on technology alone. At least one college is beginning to use this model in new teacher preparation as well.