ISTE & NETS: Two acronyms worth knowing for teachers

In the past several years, education has entered the frenzied fast track to standardization.  It started within schools, with common curriculum guides and common assessments.  It moved to the state level with PSSA’s, benchmark testing, Keystones, and CTD’s.  It is quickly progressing towards the national common cores.  It is only a matter of time before there are international standards that will standardize the education throughout different developed countries.  I believe the InternationalSociety for Technology in Education (ISTE) is initiating the first steps towards global education standards by publishing the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).  These standards outline recommended cross curricular applications of technology.  They are designed to regulate higher-order thinking in the classroom and to prepare students to enter a global workforce where being technologically fluent is expected. 

I can already hear the collective sigh from all the teachers in the world who are less than enthused at yet ANOTHER set of standards we need to cover in the classroom!  However, there is good news.  Unlike other standards, integrating the NETS into your classroom will not require the addition of new units and it may not even consume any of our coveted “instruction days”.  The fact is, if you are using Web 2.0 tools in your classroom to enhance your curriculum, you may already be meeting many of these standards. 

Take a look at the cluster map I made below that outlines the six new branches of technology standards. 

If we take a second to look at each of the standards, there are simple ways that Web 2.0 Tools can meet  the necessary requirements.
1. Creativity and Innovation- sites such as Prezi and Glogster help students synthesize and create new presentations and ideas. 
2. Communication and Collaboration- many global PBL sittes like iEARN, and Globe promote communication and collaborative projects between different schools and different nations.
3. Research and Information Fluency- as students use tools like wiki's, blogs, and podcasts, they develop a culture of branching out to other sources of information.  Students can find supporting websites and link them to their wiki.  They can embed talks from experts in their blogs.
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making- as students participate in hands-on collaborative projects, they must use problem solving skills to develop their products.
5. Digital Citizenship- gone are the days when student work is seen only by the teacher.  Web 2.0 tools are in a public forum that forces students to take responsibility and ownership for their final product.
6.Technology Operations and Concepts- students using Web 2.0 tools learn the language of technology by immersing themselves in several different platforms.  Students learn how to embed widgets in wiki's, how to convert video file types in imovie, and how to use the touch-up tool in photoshop. 


The reality is, the NETS may be just as important as each of the core content standards for our students who will be entering the workforce in the Conceptual Age.

ISTE. (2007). International society for technology in education. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx