“Building Technology Facilitators and Leaders: a standards -based approach”
By Jo Williamson and Traci Redish
Learning and Leading with Technology/August 2007
This article focuses on the ISTE’s Technology Facilitation (TF) and Technology Leadership (TL) standards and how they can be better utilized in our school systems. The article talks about the interesting irony that technology educators are familiar with the NETS standards for teachers and students to help guide their growth, but are seemingly not as familiar with the national standards that apply to their own roles and professional growth.
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) published these standards in 2001. TF standards apply to instructional technology specialists and The TL standards are for those professionals who lead technology programs at the district, regional, state or national level.
Many of the standards have quite a few similarities, with subtle differences. In fact, the categories and performance indicators are the same, but the performance standards and tasks are a little different, with the leadership category being broader in scope. These standards are aligned with the NETS standards.
The TF and TL standards differ in the following ways:
1. Location of performance- This means that facilitators will perform at the school level for the most part and leaders will perform their responsibilities at the district, state, or regional level.
2. Breadth and depth of experiences- Facilitators are expected to have an in-depth knowledge, whereas the leaders are expected to have an advanced level of knowledge. Facilitators implement strategic directions, while the leaders are responsible for creating strategic plans. With a research based approach.
These standards help communicate and further understanding of the emerging roles of technology education professionals. They also can serve to benchmark compensation in relation to other similar professionals and identify gaps in performance levels with the ultimate goal of improving performance. They can further help in recruiting and training future technology leaders and determining a proper balance between the two within school systems. In order to maximize their use as a tool, the standards need to implemented, better communicated and tied to performance goals.
Questions:
What are some ways to enact these standards?
Familiarize staff with their existence, design rubrics, job descriptions, and evaluations tools around them.
2. Why do technology educators need standards of their own? Their roles are different and in constant flux in comparison to many other types of educators.
By Jo Williamson and Traci Redish
Learning and Leading with Technology/August 2007
This article focuses on the ISTE’s Technology Facilitation (TF) and Technology Leadership (TL) standards and how they can be better utilized in our school systems. The article talks about the interesting irony that technology educators are familiar with the NETS standards for teachers and students to help guide their growth, but are seemingly not as familiar with the national standards that apply to their own roles and professional growth.
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) published these standards in 2001. TF standards apply to instructional technology specialists and The TL standards are for those professionals who lead technology programs at the district, regional, state or national level.
Many of the standards have quite a few similarities, with subtle differences. In fact, the categories and performance indicators are the same, but the performance standards and tasks are a little different, with the leadership category being broader in scope. These standards are aligned with the NETS standards.
The TF and TL standards differ in the following ways:
1. Location of performance- This means that facilitators will perform at the school level for the most part and leaders will perform their responsibilities at the district, state, or regional level.
2. Breadth and depth of experiences- Facilitators are expected to have an in-depth knowledge, whereas the leaders are expected to have an advanced level of knowledge. Facilitators implement strategic directions, while the leaders are responsible for creating strategic plans. With a research based approach.
These standards help communicate and further understanding of the emerging roles of technology education professionals. They also can serve to benchmark compensation in relation to other similar professionals and identify gaps in performance levels with the ultimate goal of improving performance. They can further help in recruiting and training future technology leaders and determining a proper balance between the two within school systems. In order to maximize their use as a tool, the standards need to implemented, better communicated and tied to performance goals.
Questions:
What are some ways to enact these standards?
Familiarize staff with their existence, design rubrics, job descriptions, and evaluations tools around them.
2. Why do technology educators need standards of their own? Their roles are different and in constant flux in comparison to many other types of educators.
No comments:
Post a Comment