The 21st century arrived with new challenges and opportunities. Schools are gradually changing too, and this is particularly so because the students are different now. Their interests, needs and most of all, the ways that they find and process information and the techniques they use are completely different. Today's students are individuals and personalities. In the 21st century a child wants to be different, not wanting to dress the same as others, or look like everybody else, and considers technology to be a part of their self-expression, willingly trying and using everything new: computers, mobile gadgetry, social networks etc. And, getting students involved in an active learning process is becoming an ever increasing challenge. Each student requires an individual approach and motivation. It can clearly be seen that technology can assist teachers in undertaking this impossible mission - in providing an individualized approach to each student, independently of their sphere of interest, level of knowledge and ability in the specific subject being taught. The world is changing so swiftly that we can't imagine with any accuracy, what the labour market will be like that will greet the current first year students when they finish their 12th year. However, one thing is clear - technology has arrived and will remain in our lives. The quality of education and the preparedness of a student for a successful life and work in the modern world are to a large extent dependent on how well a teacher is able to change with the times and skilfully use these tools in the dialogue with students. The importance of further education is increasing each year because people need to continually master new technology and have to adapt to a changing labour market. Nowadays it's no longer possible to maintain one's competitiveness if knowledge isn't being supplemented and that's why further education is becoming more and more popular. Learning has become the key word in today's era. Everybody is learning young and old. The goals of education -both strategic, as well as tactical, are in essence developed by the teacher. That's why particular attention is being focussed on the education of teachers and the development of their professional skills. Creative and even outstanding people are needed for a nation to be competitive on world markets and for its economy to be competitive. For education to be effective, creative and thinking educators are needed - teachers, who can be drawn into the education process - into professional development, implemented through further education courses. Further education needs to assist teachers in becoming integrated in the European and world education systems, which require rapid responses, adaptation to new needs and completely new situations in real school/university practice. Teachers should ask themselves four questions: - Should I change? - Do I want to change? - Am I able to change? - How are changes linked to creativity? If there's a positive answer the teacher can become competitive among his/her colleagues, thereby guaranteeing the attainment of a competitive education for the student too. Demands are placed on the teacher of today to organize learning in a way that in the acquirement of knowledge, the subject of study becomes a means of developing the student's thinking, the cultivation of the sphere of the senses, as well as the improvement of social skills. In this way the problem of the learning environment moves to centre stage. What should it be like? How should it be developed? Every teacher should be aware of their capabilities. They should review their teaching resources, evaluate the most useful teaching methods and techniques for the learning of the subject they teach, and to organize the most democratic, humane and efficient learning environment. This environment is one where the teacher and the student, as well as the students between themselves, actively cooperate in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills in a process which is based on technology. Teacher focussed professional development ensures the quality of a modern educational process. In the life-long education context, each teacher has to develop their professional and personal competencies, to ensure the development of general and professional skills and to make it possible for teachers to stand up to new challenges and undertake their tasks in a non-traditional, but well argumented way. This is because education strengthens intuition, daring and the ability to knowingly transform the experiences gained into innovative work. The development of a teacher's professional proficiency is the improvement of the quality of skills of a teacher's professional activities, which mainly takes place in the form of further education courses. In a survey which was undertaken in 2008, both students and their parents, as well as the teachers themselves pointed out that they need to improve their IT skills, which were very weak or even non-existent. Currently in Latvia, teachers' professional development is being guided in accordance with the central task in education - to create a society which learns throughout life, and that's why the continual development of competencies has been planned and is expected in the results of further education programme goals. If the measure of a teacher's professionalism in the 20th century was knowledge, then nowadays a teacher's professionalism is determined through competencies, with the criteria of measurement being the results of pedagogical activity. The effectiveness of a teacher's work is a precondition for education quality. Researcher Steven Farr maintains that the role of a teacher in the achievement of results in education is greater than the content of education or the role of the school. Every teacher has to be able to professionally develop the kind of learning environment in which each student is provided with the opportunity to utilize all of their abilities and potential, to reveal their individuality, to get fully involved in all aspects of life, and to develop the ability to be a creative, successful and happy person. This means that the teacher needs a variety of professional competencies more and more, and IT competencies, the skill to utilize, find and develop digital teaching resources themselves are an inseparable part of these. If the teacher and students can find a common language in the learning process, if students are perceived as cooperation partners on the path to a common goal (standard), if the selected teaching methods are such that they are able to interest and involve them, if the evaluation criteria are clear and understandable to everyone, then the learning process will most likely be successful and the teachers, students and their parents will be satisfied. The research problem has been determined by the contradictions observed in society between the goals selected in education and their implementation in the teaching process, and the ability of teachers to utilize the latest technology for effective, creative learning process. Attention in the research has been focussed on the current situation in Latvia in teachers' professional development on IT issues, gathering information about the supply of further education courses and researching the necessary improvements in keeping with contemporary teaching procedures - both for school pupils and adults.
