Over the past 10 years or so, a range of competency or skill frameworks for teachers have arisen in educational circles. In addition, several attempts have been made to define core IT skills for employment in general, as employment has shifted from an industrial to an information base.

Initially "computing competencies" for teachers were aimed largely at those teachers who were using computers, who were for the most part computer studies teachers and (as business computers became ubiquitous) business studies teachers. The mechanisms that accompanied these competencies were often formal courses leading to postgraduate certification, and frequently contained programming and computer theory as components. While the computer studies and business studies teachers are clearly still users of computing technology, the area to which this paper refers is the broader use of computing in general education rather than specialist computer education. For this reason, the competencies that were appropriate for computing specialist areas cannot be translated to this environment.

The development of general computing competency frameworks for general employment led to some teachers, schools and education employers using such frameworks as a basis for teacher professional development. Thus, some teachers undertook general computing training courses aimed largely at clerical and managerial staff in private and government employment. While these courses, which were often developed by private training providers, were of some use in giving teachers a perspective on the use of business productivity tools, they focussed on functional skills in computer use rather than the application of computer technology to classroom practice. This was perhaps useful in cases where teachers wished to teach these functional skills, but was of less use to generalist teachers who wished to see computers as a classroom tool for children rather than simply training students for the workplace. The transfer of this new knowledge to pedagogy was dependent on individual teachers, many of whom had to overcome other obstacles such as the lack of computer resources and limited budget: in practice, these barriers combined and effective classroom integration of computers was the exception rather then the norm.

Enthusiastic teachers began to establish the value of computer and communication technology in the classroom. Commercial interests (who had long recognised the value of developing the education market), along with the research activities of the education community, researched and promoted the integration on computing into education, forming the concept which this document refers to as Learning Technology. Projects such as the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow showcased the use of such technology, and increased efforts by enthusiastic teachers and education systems combined with parental pressures led to the expectation that Learning Technology should be an essential part of schooling.

In the process, teachers in general worked in environments where the changes of the business world were unfelt. Computer technology which permeated other workplaces was absent from schools: teachers felt left out of this area, and except for those who had actively pursued the use of technology, most teachers were unfamiliar with the concept. Accordingly, when the issue of IT competency arose, it was not unusual for the business environment to be seen as the area from which expertise and skills could be derived.

Although coming from a position of ignorance, teachers quickly established that the business skills focus of such competencies was not addressing the fact that their role was to teach children, not process business information. Consequently, energies were directed in some quarters into developing frameworks that addressed the pedagogical, managerial, administrative and professional skills that were emerging as useful in using information technology for teaching and learning. It should be mentioned, however, that many groups that do not have knowledge of the education process still assume that the skills involved are simply generic IT skills.

A range of education systems and organisations have since developed various frameworks for Learning Technology Competencies. Although complete coverage is impossible, some of the more representative models are given in the following pages. Omission of any particular framework is in no way an indication of its worth: for the sake of brevity, only samples have been included.