A report on national attitudes to Information and Communications Technology learning undertaken by the University of New England, the Australian Council for Computers in Education and the Australian Curriculum Studies Association has found widespread resistance to ICT learning in schools.

Teachers were unwilling to be involved in projects because they saw ICT use as more work, peripheral to the main game in schools, avoidable, not guaranteeing improved learning outcomes and outside their experience and expertise.

Coalition education spokesman Tony Smith seized on the report which was handed to the former Coalition government in October 2007 and placed on the Department of Eduction's website this week as evidence the Rudd Government's $1.2billion plan to put computers in schools would be useless without proper teacher training and support.

''It shows that simply dumping computers at schools will be of no great benefit if teachers are unwilling to use them and there's no money to actually make them work,'' Mr Smith said.

''You can have all the computers in classrooms you want but if teachers won't use them or can't use them, they'll be useless.''

The report recommended a ''re-invigoration'' of a national commitment to embedding Information and Communications Technology in learning in Australia but also warned of the need for ''serious investment of thought and research'' in tackling concerns about their usefulness.

Key findings from the report included teachers viewing IT in the classroom as neither required nor necessary, creating an ''avoidance'' culture. They saw computers as a ''distraction'' and were sceptical about their use in the curriculum. They believed the use of computers and IT did not guarantee improved learning outcomes outside their experience and expertise.

Under the Rudd Government's plans for a digital education revolution, every student in Years 9-12 will have access to their own computer by 2012. Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the report only served to highlight Coalition inaction on technology in schools. Ms Gillard said the Government's funding commitments to ICT included $32million for online curriculum tools and resources and, together with state and territory governments, another $11.25million to be spent on professional development for teachers.

A separate report issued yesterday also highlighted the desire for more teacher training in ICT use when it found only a third of classroom teachers considered themselves proficient and confident in using computers in the classroom.

Conducted by education.au, a national agency set up to support the integration of technology in teaching, the survey found most teachers believed they were internet-savvy and locked into the latest technology but only 36 per cent considered themselves proficient.

Teachers cited a range of barriers to using online technologies, including poor infrastructure and bandwidth, limited access to computers, limited confidence or expertise in computer technology and the increased blocking and filtering of internet content.