New technology standards for education

As education technology changes at lightening speed, the guidelines for technology standards must race to keep up. eSchool News reports that the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are being revised - and students and educators are being asked for feedback.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which recommends technology standards for what students should know about technology, has addressed the changing pace of a new global economy by revising their nine year-old technology standards.

"The standards' age, the globalization of education, new developments in technology, and changing demographics of learners ... were all good indicators that the standards should be updated," said Don Knezek, the group's chief executive.

While the original NETS identified skills and knowledge every student needed to succeed in the technology and information environment that was emerging in 1998, there was still a tone of concentrating on the tools--the technology [itself],"

The revised standards focus on the "skills required in a digital world to produce and innovate" using technology, said Knezek.

The revised draft standards are organized into six categories: creativity and innovation; communication and collaboration; research and information retrieval; critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making; digital citizenship; and technology operations and concepts.