The paper looks at the ways in which policymakers in the UK have attempted to get student teachers to use new technology effectively in their subject teaching over the past decade. During this period, there have been changes in the competence frameworks for validating student teachers' ability to use ICT in their subject teaching, and the UK government has invested billions of pounds in equipment, websites and training materials in order to secure the development of a technologically empowered teaching force. In spite of these evolving policy and competence frameworks and the investment of considerable sums of money, recent research and inspection reports suggest that the outcomes of these investments have been at best "patchy", with the Office for Standards in Education (the government agency charged with inspecting the quality of schools and initial teacher education institutions) suggesting that many teachers still do not make effective use of ICT in their teaching (Ofsted, 2007), and the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa, 2007) suggesting that only three out of ten schools in England and Wales are making effective use of ICT to improve teaching and learning. The paper looks at the recent history of ICT policy for initial teacher education in the context of student teachers' views on various components of their "education" in the use of new technology to teach their subject. In spite of the importance attached to this facet of initial training, and significant investment in training materials and resources, there is evidence to suggest that much of this investment is not found to be helpful by students. The research was undertaken in two phases; the first phase, in 2002-3 examined student teachers' views of the competence framework put in place by the Department of Education and Employment in 1998 (DfEE, 1998), and the second, in 2009, explored university tutors' and student teachers' views of the arrangements for developing and assessing competence in ICT under the revised competence framework which was introduced in 2007. The study attempts to elicit student teachers' views on what aspects of the arrangements for the development of competence in ICT have been or are helpful, and which facets of ICT training and assessment have been or are less helpful. The concluding section considers the extent to which lessons have been learned from past mistakes and misjudgements in this area, and (from a student teacher perspective) what are the most propitious ways forward for helping new teachers to make best use of the potential of ICT for improving teaching and learning. There is a degree of consistency in the feedback provided by the two cohorts of students which suggests that there may be lessons to be learned for education systems outside the UK. (Contains 4 figures.)