Some teachers might be willing to train themselves, but that is not the case for the majority of teachers. Resources must be found to provide the training they need. Nor will brief workshops be sufficient to meet the need. The preparation of teachers to use technology must be ongoing and designed to fit the needs of particular teachers. The National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, a former interagency advisory council to the federal government, prepared an analysis of teacher skill requirements and the amount of time required to reach each stage.
Teacher has good operational knowledge of hardware and can perform basic troubleshooting.
Moreover, studies of experimental schools supported by Apple Computer Corp. show that even when teachers have easy access to computers and plenty of training, it takes at least three years before they feel sufficiently comfortable with computers to begin thinking instinctively about how to take advantage of computers in their lessons. The problem of professional development will no doubt become less urgent once the current generation of children, who have grown up with computers, become teachers. For the next decade or so, however, we must be prepared to invest heavily in professional development if computers are to be used successfully in schools. Support Imagine for a moment a teacher who is a computer novice but who, at the urging of the principal, department chair, or colleagues, has devoted an entire weekend to developing a lesson that uses the computer. On Monday, the teacher is prepared to run the program for the class but cannot make it operate properly.