a. In order for all of New Jersey’s students to acquire the critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary to become productive citizens in the next century, they will require access to the opportunities provided by modern technology;

b. It is imperative that teachers understand the potential of technology within the classroom to support curriculum goals and that they become proficient and sophisticated users of those technologies critical to educating New Jersey’s students;

c. Many of this State‘s teachers ended their training before technology was pervasive within teacher education programs and as a result the most frequently mentioned issue in educational technology has been the need for staff training;

d. The Education Technology Task Force, formed by the Commission on Business Efficiency in the Public Schools to assist the Legislature and Executive branch in formulating a Statewide educational technology policy, noted in its March, 1996 report, Technology and New Jersey’s Schools in the 21st Century, that some school districts have exemplary technology programs and also have developed exemplary staff training programs;

e. The task force also recommended that in order to provide access to technology to teachers in the most efficient manner possible, the State should build upon this expertise by providing grants to school districts with proven histories of success in applying technology to education so that these school districts may share that knowledge with other districts through training programs specifically developed for that purpose; and

f. The New Jersey Department of Education has repeatedly stressed the importance of technology training for educational personnel and in fact in its April, 1993 report, Educational Technology in New Jersey: A Plan for Action, emphasized the critical need for strategies that will provide and support effective staff development models in this regard.

L.1996,c.129,s.2.