Teacher training for the integration of computers in the school

M.Ed. (Subject Didactics)Knowledge and understanding of computers and those skills essential for using a computer are legitimate goals of education. It is not questionable that computer literacy is the most important skill for any work-seeker to posses. It is thus essential for school-Ieavers to be equipped with computer skills. If school-going children are really going to benefit from the new computer technology, then there must be teachers who are comfortable with facilitating the learning of children. In order to facilitate the development of teachers in order to use computers to enhance learning, teacher-training support needs to be increasingly diversified. We need to find methods of empowering the limited number of formally and semi formally trained teaching resources with the ability to impart computer knowledge and skills to the widest population of both teachers and students. Computer usage in education within existing subjects will be characterised by the incidental nature of its application by individual teachers. Since the aim is to integrate computers in existing subjects, in the context of the revised curriculum, it has to be noted that to achieve this aim, further growth in the usage of computers in education is needed. The intention of this study is to provide guidelines designed to help teachers in schools use computers as well as to expose the need for the inclusion of teachers with exper~ise in software development teams. What has triggered the researcher to conduct this study is the fact that she has noted the following: inadequate emphasis has been placed on implementation of computers in the classroom, effective the training of teachers for the use of computers in the classroom is generally lacking, and the need for the inclusion of teachers with subject expertise in software development. The findings of this study indicate that for computers to be implemented in schools, there should be pressure on the requirements for efficiency, effectiveness and quality performance of staff to carry out the innovation. This suggests that there is need for sufficient and appropriate teacher training and provision of ongoing support to teachers