This paper argues that the development of classroom practice is central to the purpose of the IPET (initial professional education and training) of teachers. Notwithstanding the growing use of ICTs (information and communication technologies), both in teacher development and school classrooms, the normative modeling of appropriate contact-based practice is still a fundamental component of IPET and needs to be conceptualized, costed, implemented, supported and evaluated accordingly. Increasingly, this needs to be done within a distance education context. However, the advent of new technologies in the social lives of learners, as well as in school classrooms, means that the notion of appropriate pedagogic practice needs to be extended to include a wider range of practices than those premised only on face-to-face contact. The paper provides some suggestions based on current practice in South Africa generally, as well as recent practice at the Unisa (University of South Africa) (Website, http//:www.unisa.ac.za) in particular, as well as drawing upon a recent on-line tutoring course run internally at the South African Institute for Distance Education (Website, http//:www.saide.org.za). This an extended and more complete version of a paper prepared for the sixth pan-common wealth forum on open learning, Kochin, India, November 2010. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)