Up to 67,000 public school teachers soon will receive free tech training. The North Carolina Community College System will provide each teacher with six hours of instruction using an Internet tool developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The teachers will learn how to integrate technology into their classrooms using LEARN North Carolina, the News & Observer in Raleigh reported May 31. The Web site includes teacher support forums, online libraries, links to other educational sites and model lesson plans to help teachers comply with state education standards. The first 30,000 teachers will be trained by January 1.

To return the favor, UNC-CH will give the community college system access to LEARN North Carolina to help it launch the Virtual Learning Community, a distance-learning initiative.