Investments in education technology will fail to provide a return if schools lack the capacity to use it well. That capacity must be built into all levels of the education system. States and districts must take aggressive steps to plan for technology and evaluate its use. For their part, schools should have the technical support to make sure the technology functions as intended. And teachers must be given sufficient and rich opportunities to learn to use it in productive ways.
New research confirms the positive link between teacher training and the use of technology.
In a study for Education Week , Harold Wenglinsky of the Educational Testing Service found that training in technology is linked to more effective uses of computers in 4th and 8th grade math classes. The Haves and Have-Nots Nationwide, the vast majority of teachers have had some training in education technology. Nearly 90 percent of teachers who had access to instructional computers in 1997 reported having had training in using computers for instruction at some time in their careers, a survey by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting found. When it comes to perceptions about whether teachers are prepared to use the Internet, strong differences of opinion surface. Several studies show that fewer teachers have had training in more sophisticated uses of technology.