Databus Issue: 2007 4 12/04/2007
Planning for 21st Century Learners
Bonnie Marks Executive Director
PDF
As the school year begins, there are two important new documents
available to assist districts with planning how to
use technology to improve student learning, while a third
resource is on the way.
Both the International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE) and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills released complimentary
documents this summer that focus on how students
in today’s world can use technology as part of their learning process.
In June, ISTE announced the updated National Education
Technology Standards for Students, or NETS*S. Two months
later, the Partnership released the Framework for 21st Century
Learning. Both of these documents will serve as important tools
to help guide technology planning. Meanwhile, the California
Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) has been working closely
with the California Department of Education to update the Education
Technology Planning Guide that was released in 2001.
These three updating projects respond to the changes in
technology, as well as to key issues that technology developments
have brought about, such as digital rights, student safety
and information literacy. In addition, the ISTE and partnership
updates were driven by changes in pedagogy in response to a
more global economy and a “flatter” world. This article provides
information about all three documents and includes the URLs
of resources to help districts support technology use to improve
student achievement.
ISTE’s original NETS were developed through consensus of
education stakeholders in the late1990s and set out to define
what students should know and be able to do with technology.
Many of California’s school districts have integrated the
NETS into their district-technology plans. ISTE used a similar
process to develop the refreshed NETS over the past two years,
convening a series of meetings and forums, including one held
at California’s Computer-Using Educators conference in March
2006. The standards are grouped into six key areas:
• Creativity and innovation
• Communication and collaboration
• Research and information fluency
• Critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making
• Digital citizenship
• Technology operations and concepts.
In differentiating the new NETS from the old, David Barr,
retired educator and member of ISTE’s Accreditation and Standards
committee indicated, “The first set of standards was about
learning to use technology. This set is about using technology
to learn.” Information about NETS, including essential conditions
to leverage technology for learning, is available on the ISTE
website at http://cnets.iste.org. Work has begun on updating the
NETS for teachers, with plans to update the NETS for administrators
beginning next year.
At the same time that ISTE was working to refresh the NETS,
members of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning were
working to update their Framework for 21st Century Learning.
The Partnership, a national education-business coalition,
focuses on the skills, knowledge and expertise today’s students
must master and the critical support systems schools need to
have in place in order to prepare their students. The newly
revised Framework will help school districts envision clear 21st
Century student outcomes for a new global economy. The document
describes outcomes in both core subjects and 21st Century
themes, focuses on learning and innovation skills that include
creativity, problem solving, communication and collaboration
skills. It also addresses key information and technology skills,such as information literacy, media
literacy, and ICT (information and communications
technology) literacy. Lastly,
it addresses life and career skills like
adaptability, initiative, self-direction,
accountability, leadership and responsibility.
Having spelled out a vision for these
skills, the Framework goes on to describe
the critical systems necessary to ensure
student mastery of these skills, including
standards, assessments, curriculum,
instruction, professional development
and learning environments aligned to
produce support for learning 21st Century
skills. The Framework for 21st
Century Learning is available at http://
www.21stcenturyskills.org.
Both the new NETS and the Framework
will be useful to districts in
developing technology plans and designing
professional development for teachers.
Both will help educators think about howthey can incorporate Web 2.0 tools like
podcasts, wikis and online discussion
forums into teaching and learning.
The third tool that will assist districts
with moving ahead is a revised Education
Technology Planning Guide from the California
Department of Education. With
the passage of AB307 (Chavez), the CDE
needed to create guidelines for districts to
use in incorporating information into their
technology plans on key topics, including:
• How they will educate pupils and
teachers on the appropriate and ethical
use of information technology in
the classroom
• Internet safety
• Copyright and the manner in which
to avoid committing plagiarism
Districts will be required to include
these components in their technology
plans as a condition for approval for
state ed tech funding beginning in 2008.
The CDE has already updated the plan
approval criteria to accommodate districts
that include these portions in their 2007
plan submissions. As part of the process
of integrating guidelines for this portion
of the technology plan into the original
Education Technology Planning Guide,
the CDE is working with CTAP to refresh
and update the guide. A draft version was
completed this summer and it is anticipated
that the CDE will be releasing the
final version during the current school
year. Those districts working on revising
their technology plans for submission
during the current year can contact their
CTAP regions if they’d like more information
about the forthcoming guide and the
AB307 requirements. A list of CTAP contacts
is available at http://ctap.k12.ca.us.
Education Technology Plan information
from the CDE is available at http://www.
cde.ca.gov/ls/et/rs/techplan.asp.
As this new school year begins, these
new tools and frameworks to help guide
planning will be invaluable. California
districts are fortunate to have these key
resources from ISTE, the Partnership for
21st Century schools, and the California
Department of Education as they move
ahead to support 21st Century learners.
Bonnie Marks is the executive director
of CTAP Region 4, a project funded by
the California Department of Education
serving seven San Francisco Bay Area
counties through the Alameda County
Office of Education. She can be reached
at bmarks@acoe.org.
