Teachers who are to implement any innovation must have the knowledge and skills to use that innovation. Considering the current trend of technology in society, teachers of tomorrow will be expected to integrate traditional media and advanced computer technology into their instructional strategies. numerous educators think that preparing teachers to use technology effectively should be a significant goal of teacher education programs. To achieve this goal, teachers will need to have the knowledge and skills to use the available tools.
Specific skills for integrating educational technology need to be taught to teachers and administrators if they are expected to use educational technology effectively. the top ten computer skills needed by new teachers as word processing, computers in curriculum, introduction to computers, subject area training, teacher utilities, database management, desktop publishing, graphics, spreadsheets, and minor hardware maintenance.
But a majority of current teachers and those planning to teach have had little or no computer education or training to incorporate educational technology in their lessons. According to the most recent data available, only one-third of K-12 teachers have had as much as 10 hours of computer training and most of this training focused on learning about computers, not learning how to teach with computers.
Another survey of teacher education majors indicated that only about one-third (29%) of student teachers perceive themselves to be prepared to teach with computers whereas a majority of them (85%) perceived themselves able to plan effective instruction and use proper teaching methods. Many teacher education faculty lack both technical knowledge of the function and mechanics of computers as well as the knowledge about why and how to use computers in instruction. Therefore, it is likely that most graduates of teacher education programs will lack these skills for integrating technology in their teaching practices. After examining the impact of the experiences of eleven student teachers who were assigned to a public secondary school which emphasizes the integration of technology in classroom instruction.
