Despite these obstacles, a small but rapidly growing number of teachers has discovered the power and scope of information technologies-often with computers they have at home. They are using computers and telecommunications to form networks of teachers, comparing experiences and exchanging ideas. They are acquiring curricula and other instructional information over educational networks. They are using computers to reduce administrative drudgery and to track and guide student development. In the process, they are using technology not only to reinvent schools but to reinvent their own roles as teachers.

But the natural diffusion of computer expertise through the teaching profession is proceeding far too slowly. The great majority of teachers will not be able to take full advantage of technology that is now available without technical support. And society cannot wait for a new generation of teachers more familiar with information technologies to enter the schools.

The professional development of teachers has often been an afterthought in American schools. When budgets get tight, career development is often one of the first things to go. But if teachers are to become comfortable with the technologies that will reshape schools, they must receive both preservice training during their college years and inservice training during their careers. They need after-school workshops, summer sessions, and time off from their classes to learn how technology is being used elsewhere. They need to be able to observe their colleagues' classrooms and talk with them so that they can unlearn old practices and build new ones. In the long run, for technology to succeed, as much time and money must be invested in teachers as is invested in the actual hardware and software.

There are many ways to promote the familiarity of teachers with technology. One possibility is to tie pay scales not to the advanced degrees teachers acquire but to the completion of courses designed explicitly to upgrade professional skills.

Another possibility is to create a new kind of educational professional skilled in educational technologies. Such a person could work with individual teachers to integrate technology into classrooms and fully use its interactive and networking capabilities.

One of the most powerful methods of professional development is to establish explicit links between teachers and organizations outside schools such as corporations, universities, nonprofit institutions, and federal laboratories. For example, teachers can be paired with corresponding professionals in the broader community: science teachers with scientists, English teachers with writers, social studies teachers with historians and museum curators. Teachers involved in these partnerships can then act as resource teachers for their colleagues.

As American education begins to move toward a new model of school, the education of teachers must undergo a fundamental shift-toward a model that treats the lifelong education of teachers with the same importance as the education of students. Teachers must be given time to travel to meetings and share information with colleagues. They must have the authority to structure their classrooms in ways that allow them to meet high standards and simultaneously address the individual needs of their students. And as true professionals, they deserve the technological support that professionals need to do their jobs.

A successful union of information technology and systemic reform of K-12 education requires a renewed commitment to teachers in the nation's schools. If teachers are to become the students' empowered managers and resource guides for the broader world of information available through networks, they must have opportunities for professional development to take on this new role. Investment in teachers today for all forms of professional development is woefully inadequate. While their access to technology in the classroom and at home is growing, it is at far too slow a pace and at a level of financial commitment too low to address the needs. Nor can this shortfall be met by relying on a new generation of younger teachers that are more computer literate than their predecessors. That strategy is not consistent with systemic reform. Teachers must be offered opportunities for coursework in information technology and the opportunity to engage in building links in their communities where experience with technology is already in place. Students must be brought into the reform strategy as they are experienced mentors in the emergent world of cyberspace. School systems that want to change must promote professional development of teachers with the same commitment they make to hardware and software availability and network access.