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Richard Brincefield of Global Literacyi Foundation has provided us with a 2 lb ASUS $400 Eee PC loaded with software, and about the size of a trade paperback. The key board is about 85% of standard, and fits the student’s hand. With MIT’s Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and others coming on the market at $200 price point, one more cost barrier of the K-12 eLearningi system transformationi has been broken.

A much larger barrier is the highly skilled educator workforce needed in K-12 education. Over the next ten years legacy education will transform to eLearning; there will be demands for more core subjects such as Math and Science and mastery learning to graduate; integration of 21^st Century Skills development and Arizona’s student population will increase by 40%.

A recent researchi group working on Teacher Working Conditions provide a mid-survey report that addressed a number of critical issues. Teachers perceive they have a good place to work with dedicated colleagues. Elementary teachers are more positive than their high school peers on leadership and professional development. Teachers who stay have a much higher regards for leadership and trust than those who leave teaching. The reasons for staying (most important first) are leadership, facilities and resources, empowerment, time and professional development. The greatest difference between principals (90% range) and teachers (50% range) was teachers involve with decisions, consistency in rule enforcement, profession recognition and professional development). Teachers are critically short on non-instructional time, especially elementary.

From these and many other inputs, especially the 21^st Century skill conference, the proposed eLearning draft legislationi has section on the educator workforce. A study, redesign and implementation plan process has been conceptualized that focuses on the entire Arizona educator workforce system. From high school students to baby-boomers deciding to becoming educators to retirement paths all aspects need to be addressed. There are a host of players that includes colleges, professional development organizations, districts and educational organizations to name a few. By focusing on the next ten years of transformation, the life-cycle of educators, and the emerging technologies that are affecting everything a currently impossible problem of adequate highly qualified teachers of all types, can be effectively addressed.