Business Group Calls for More Technology Training

By Mary Ann Zehr

School districts and colleges of education have their work cut out for them in training teachers to use technology effectively, a report released last week by a group of business and education leaders says.

"Businesses are demanding from public schools what they call a 20th-century technology-literate student," said Terry Crane, the president of Jostens Learning Corp. and a co-chairwoman of the CEO Forum on Education and Technology, the Washington-based group of 20 executives that published the report. "You're not going to get a technology-literate student if you don't have a technology-literate teacher."

More than half the nation's schools consider professional development in technology to be "optional," and at least one-third of education schools don't have the facilities to train teachers to use technology well in the classroom, according to studies...