International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

1. Standards for Teachers

1.1. There are seven standards for Teachers. Learner, Leader, Citizen, Collaborator, Designer, Facilitator and Analyst. I will highlight two of them.

1.2. Collaborator: Being a collaborator means to work with someone, or with a group. As a teacher, this can be achieved during grade level meetings where all of the team members have relevant information to contribute and share with one another. It can also be achieved in the classroom with the students. When working with the students, being a collaborator means working as a whole class, with small groups or individual students. One way that the teacher could accomplish this with all of the students is during lessons. Instead of talking at the students, incorporate them into the lesson by asking questions or having them write on the board.

1.3. Citizen: A citizen in terms of a teacher is similar to being a role model. They want to inspire students, they want them to understand what they are able of accomplishing. Always showing respect in the classroom, showing emotion and enforcing the already acquired knowledge that students have on how to be responsible with technology in their classroom.

2. Standards for Administrators

2.1. There are five standards for Administrators. Visionary Leadership, Digital Age Learning Culture, Excellence in Professional Practice, Systemic Improvement and Digital Citizenship.

2.2. Digital Age Learning Culture: This standard explains that administrators are also involved in student engagement even if they aren't directly involved in the classroom. They should also know how to use all current technology so they are able to assist teachers. An example of assisting teachers would be if a student has an IEP, but is placed in the general education classroom, the teacher needs to understand how the student uses their technology and how they, as a teacher, will use it.

2.3. Excellence in Professional Practice: Administrators demonstrate excellence in professional practice by taking the time to further educate themselves on new practices that use technology in the classroom. It is important for administrators to continually educate themselves on any recent changes in technology. By educating themselves, they are able to then educate the teachers who will educate the students.

3. Standards for Technology Coaches

3.1. There are six standards for Technology Coaches: Visionary Leadership, Teaching, Learning, and Assessments, Digital Age Learning Environments, Professional Development and Program Evaluation, Digital Citizenship, and Content Knowledge and Professional Growth.

3.2. Visionary Leadership: Technology Coaches can have a wide variety of jobs within a school. They can be the "IT" or even the "tech support". One part of the visionary leadership standard is advocating for technology in schools. They can be responsible for trying to get smartboards implemented in schools that don't have them, they can be advocating for a class set of laptops, or even a set of laptops that the whole grade level will use. They also have use to their best judgement when advocating. If there's a classroom with kindergarten students, having a class set of laptops wouldn't be a good idea. When those smartboards have glitches or the laptops won't allow students to login, the technology coaches would be the people to try and solve those issues.

3.3. Teaching, Learning, and Assessments: Technology coaches are also teachers in a sense. They have to teach the teachers how to use the technology that is being implemented into their class. Technology coaches are also responsible for finding new ways to use the technology to encourage more participation from the students and then demonstrating those ideas for the teachers. Since technology coaches are also "tech support", they need to be aware of potential or known complications with the new ideas and know how to resolve any complications or prevent them from happening.

4. Standards for Students

4.1. There are seven standards for students: Empowered Learner, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator and Global Collaborator. Three of those standards are explained to the right.

4.2. Knowledge Constructor: What is the purpose of this standard? The purpose of this standard is to make sure that students know how to identify false or over exaggerated information versus factual information. If a student were to open any web browser and search for anything or anyone. For example, googling Britney Spears, the majority of the search results are true, however, one headline says "Britney Spears 'freaks out' on helicopter to private island". That headline is misleading and can imply that her 'freak out' was in a bad way. When you click on the headline to read the article, you will learn that in this case 'freak out' is meant as a way of saying excited.

4.3. Digital Citizen: What / who is a digital citizen? A digital citizen can be anybody who is able to responsibly and respectfully use technology and what comes along with it (playing live video games, social media, etc.) However, this standard specifically focuses on students. One way a student can be a good digital citizen is by not sharing any personal information online.

4.4. To be an Empowered Learner students must reach two goals. The first goal is achieving a level academically that shows they are qualified to complete their learning goal. The second goal is showing that they are capable of achieving that goal while displaying their work.

5. Standards for Computer Science Educators

5.1. There are four standards for Computer Science Educators. Knowledge of Content, Effective Teaching and Learning Strategies, Effective Learning Environments and Effective Professional Knowledge and Skills. I will elaborate on two standards.

5.2. Effective Professional Knowledge and Skills: Computer science teachers need to update themselves and become familiar with new materials more often than a general education teacher. This is because computer science is always evolving. They should always try and stay as up to date on new information regarding their subject as much as possible. If the students already knew about this new information, the computer science teacher would be able to incorporate that into their class. New information could be a new iPhone being released, or a new laptop that converts into a tablet.

5.3. Knowledge of Content: One of the most important components of this standard is taking into consideration how students will use the information outside of the classroom. Learning how to read, create, and use codes, gives students the opportunity to discover and develop new websites, new softwares, new codes. But, what will they do with their discoveries and developments is where a concern can be raised. A significant amount of knowledge in computer science also gives students the ability to hack. Whether that be to change their grades in the school system or something more extreme like hacking a military database.

6. International Society for Technology in Education, things to know.

6.1. There are three groups that include standards about digital citizenship / digital citizen. For students, being a digital citizen is being responsible with how they use technology. For technology coaches, they have a similar role to the students. The difference is that technology coaches are educating the students on how to be responsible. Administrators play the role of overseeing how everyone else is being a good digital citizen.

6.2. What is the goal of ISTE? The goal of ISTE is to provide the opportunities to teach and to learn using technology.

6.3. Why are they important? They are important because no matter what group or what standard is being put into context, the main idea is encouraging students to learn how to use technology affectively inside and outside of school.