Pupils using a computer as an aid to their learning.

For the IT phobic, it seems there is no escape as the number ofcomputer-free zones rapidly evaporate and in education particularly, theadvance is unstoppable.

On Friday, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a £700 millionspending plan to get all classrooms on-line by the Year 2001.

And in Croydon, education chiefs hope to hit the Government's targettwo years early and by April 1999, all children in the borough'ssecondary and primary schools will have access to the informationsuperhighway.

Half the borough's primary schools have been supplied with twomachines and the rest will receive theirs next year. The council has alsoagreed to provide new laptops for teachers.

As Dave Jordan of the Croydon Schools Advisory Centre explained: "ITis not seen as a subject but as a tool to be used in every classroom."

The implications for teachers are obvious. If every classroom is tobecome on-line, all linked to a national grid then every teacher mustembrace the brave new world of IT.

While most children and some adults take to computers like a duck towater, others flounder in front of a screen.

It is for this reason that the council is offering a laptop trainingscheme for 64 teachers later this month.

As well as this specific training, Dave Jordan is involved in on-goingtraining for teachers whatever their level of knowledge.

Technology boffins work alongside subject specialists to explore ways ofusing the computer creatively in the classroom.

Next year lottery money will be available through the New OpportunitiesFund providing about £450 worth of computer training for each Croydonteacher.

Dave Harvey, Secretary of the Croydon Association of the NUT, said: "Teachers welcome the new technology as it is clearly beneficial forchildren.

"We will be studying the council's proposals for training andwe want to see that teachers are well equipped to make use of the newtechnology.

"We also want to make sure that teachers will not be expected toundertake training in their own time. Teachers are already overstretchedand it would be another burden."

John Corder, headteacher of Downsview Primary School, introduced E-mailto his school in 1983.

But he also admits that while there are incalcuble benefits to laptops,modems and computer software, he has encountered many headaches inintroducing them.

He said: "Training is an issue for staff who have a limited amountof time available. Rapid developments in technology mean that training hasto be frequently updated."

But he is committed to keeping up with the times, for as he says: "Yesterday'slessons produce yesterday's pupils."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.