AbstractIn this paper we consider the problem of training teachers to select suitable educational programs to use in their classroom. We argue that selecting good programs is difficult, requiring both skill and experience, and that training teachers to do this has been largely neglected, both by the available literature and by in‐service training courses. We describe an Open University course (Open University Press, 1984) which addresses this issue and report on a formative evaluation of an activity within the course in which teachers examined three commercially available educational software packages.We conclude by emphasizing the importance of a sound framework in which teachers can develop selection skills so that they can go beyond the superficial technical features of the programs to consider whether the underlying pedagogy is sound and suited to their need