ISTE Essential Conditions

How does a school district know how to leverage technology in the most effective way to increase student learning?  There might be a desire to do this, but leaders might feel like they don't know what the right steps are to achieve this goal.  ISTE has scripted the critical moves to help with this mission.  Using the ISTE Essential Conditions, leaders can use research based practices to help boost student learning and engagement through technology.

Here are a couple of ways that schools can use the ISTE Essential Conditions:

Shared Vision

This is like the school's destination postcard.  It is the end goal that all decisions will point towards.    Often mission and vision statements come from the top with the expectation that it will be followed by the grunts on the ground.  This essential condition is different.  The important thing to remember is that it is a shared vision.  This means that all stakeholders (admin, teachers, tech professionals, students, parents, and community members) voices must be heard and included when creating this vision.  A school or district should have multiple entry points for people to share their voices to the creation of this vision.   This could be in the form of surveys but also community gatherings where the big ideas are discussed.  The important thing is to identify what your community sees as its values and goals.  

Empowered Leaders

This essential condition is about providing an environment that allows your leaders in the school to take risks, be creative, and transform their classroom and school.  Your leaders in the school are not just administrators.  They are the teachers, educational support staff, and students who are mavericks at technology and learning opportunities.  They don't just use the cool new thing just because of the glitz and glitter but know how to truly engage and enrich learning with technology and learning experiences.  These are your bright spots in organization.  They can be a road map for helping others in the school or district achieve similar results. 

Implementation Plan

With the shared vision and the bright spots of your empowered leaders, you know where you want to go.  The implementation plan helps you script the critical moves to make the changes needed to reach your shared vision.  All stakeholders have access to it and know what to do and what is expected of them.  It is clear and concrete so that there isn't any ambiguity to muddy the waters.  This also helps empower the schools stakeholders to do the good work that needs to happen to get to the shared vision.  Stakeholders can see where they need to go and know what to do to get there.

Equitable Access

The shared vision won't be any good if some stakeholders cannot get there due to inequitable access to technology and learning opportunities.  When looking at the plan, school must ask themselves what barriers there are for students to achieve these goals.  Schools need to look at access to technology and high speed internet for all student both at school and at home.  But school also need to look at the quality of learning opportunities and make sure that all students have access to instruction that allows for students to be more than just consumers of technology.  Schools need to make sure that not just their gifted or wealthy students get access to hands on, minds on technology rich activities.  This can be attained by looking at one of the other essential conditions:

Curriculum Framework

All students can have excellent learning experiences rich with transformative technology embedded right into their curriculum.  Schools should look at their curriculum maps and identify what units, lessons, grades, etc certain skills and experiences can be embedded in the content.  This will allow for scaffolding of skills, ideas, and opportunities.  And it will ensure that there are equitable experiences embedded for all students.  

Ongoing Professional Learning

Using the other essential conditions schools should have build a robust infrastructure that will provide a supportive environment for the share vision to thrive.  But an important part is having teachers that have the skills and knowledge to teach students using current technological pedagogy.  Professional Learning experiences are a must. The school's shared vision is an ongoing statement.  This means that the professional learning needs too be ongoing as well and not just a one and done type of training.  It is part of creating the supportive environment.

Assessment and Evaluation

The last one I want to highlight is the assessment and evaluation condition.  After the plan is put in place and stakeholders are following the plan to move toward the shared vision, it is imperative that schools assess and evaluate the plan so far.  If evaluation never happens, schools might not be aware of problems that are occurring  within the plan.  It is about being respectful of effort, time, and resources.  Schools can identify problems quickly and adjust when they have a plan to assess and evaluate their progress in a systematic way.