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Learning, teaching and leading A comparative look at the ISTE Standards for Teachers and UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers

By David Barr, Ph.D. and Carolyn Sykora Jan. 2015

Introduction Technological changes are accelerating at a breathtaking pace and are challenging the conventional approach to primary and secondary education. As leaders and educators explore the opportunities afforded by the rapid changes, they must also consider how these innovations impact the process of learning and teaching.

Two organizations, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have been leading efforts globally to guide the effective implementation of education technology. Both have established a body of work that outlines a broad set of competencies teachers will need to be successful educators in an increasingly global, digital society. The ISTE Standards for Teachers and the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers provide two of the most comprehensive and widely used models for implementing educational technology in primary and secondary education throughout the world.

This paper explores the similarities and differences between the two models and how they can complement each other to catalyze effective learning and teaching with technology.

Why adopt standards or competencies? By whatever name, standards or competencies provide a common language for skills, goals and expected outcomes. Standards for teachers establish targets, milestones and benchmarks that set a level of quality expected of every teacher in the system. In both models, ISTE and UNESCO articulate a set of skills that teachers need to integrate technology into learning and teaching. When a school or a nation adopts education technology standards, it signals the importance of preparing students for the digital age and a commitment to marshal the leadership necessary to achieve the vision.

Overview of the ISTE Standards and the UNESCO frameworkThe original ISTE Standards, published between 1998 and 2002, were a suite of role-specific standards for students, teachers, computer science educators, technology coaches and administrators. They originally focused on “learning to use technology.” ISTE updated the standards in 2007, when the evolving influence of technology on learning, teaching and leading shifted the emphasis to “using technology to learn.”

Early on, ISTE also recognized that the deployment of standards in a school required a specific set of resources, infrastructure and policies to be in place to successfully and effectively use technology for learning. In 1998, ISTE created a set of systemwide prerequisites known as the Essential Conditions, which outline the supports necessary to leverage technology for learning at the school or district level.

The ISTE Standards for Teachers are intended to be adopted in concert with the Essential Conditions. Together they orchestrate a robust use of technology that ensures students can meet the higher-order thinking skills embodied in the ISTE Standards for Students.

The UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (UNESCO framework) was originally developed in 2008 by UNESCO in partnership with other organizations, including ISTE. This first version of the framework resided within a larger body of work including a policy framework, standard modules and implementation guidelines. A second version was released in 2011, with slight modifications to the competency descriptors. In both versions, the framework aligns with UNESCO’s higher purpose to achieve national economic and human development goals through education. In 2013, UNESCO published the Guidelines on Adaptation of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. This guide chronicles a process that policy experts can use to carry out national strategies required to implement the framework.

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ISTE STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity

2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments

3. Model digital age work and learning

4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership

THE UNESCO ICT COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHERSTECHNOLOGY LITERACY

KNOWLEDGE DEEPENING

KNOWLEDGE CREATION

UNDERSTANDING ICT IN EDUCATION

Policy awareness Policy understanding Policy innovation

CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT

Basic knowledge Knowledge application Knowledge society skills

PEDAGOGY Integrate technology Complex problem solving Self management

ICT Basic tools Complex tools Pervasive toolsORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

Standard classroom Collaborative groups Learning organizations

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Digital literacy Manage and guide Teacher as model learner

Recognizing the wide spectrum of human and economic resources among member states and the tremendous variation in teacher skills, the UNESCO framework allows for multiple entry points along a progression of teacher competencies. The framework comprises three approaches: Technology Literacy, Knowledge Deepening, and Knowledge Creation. This teacher-skills progression is described as a “move from basic comprehension on issues relating to ICT to finally reinterpreting educators[‘] responsibilities to leverage ICT in unique ways.”

Similarities between the modelsThe ISTE Standards and the UNESCO framework share many of the same goals, so it is no surprise that they are similar in several ways. The competencies include both the mastery of technological skills and the knowledge and skills educators need to prepare students to be actively engaged in a knowledge economy.

Both models are intended to be useful to an international audience and have supported and informed educational reforms at a national level. Perhaps most compelling, both can be adopted or adapted for use based on the needs of a wide range of users in a variety of educational situations. When potential users are looking for models that they can implement quickly to meet immediate needs, the ISTE Standards or the UNESCO framework can be adopted wholesale. In other instances, users may want to customize or localize materials to particular contexts or longer-term goals, making adaptation a viable and acceptable approach. ISTE and UNESCO both provide rich content that can be adapted to localized needs. Therefore, policy and education leaders have considerable flexibility choosing either model or components from both to help them realize the systemic change needed to bring education into the digital age.

Differences between the modelsNot surprisingly the UNESCO framework and ISTE Standards also vary in a number of significant ways. Most notably, the models differ at a structural level (see Comparing Structures figure below). The UNESCO framework is matrixed along a progression and the ISTE Standards are not. In both, the categories cover a broad range of similar skills. However, the UNESCO framework includes a policy component absent from the ISTE Standards.

The UNESCO framework was developed primarily for ministries of education and others responsible for establishing national education policy. The UNESCO framework describes a broader, more general set of goals intended to establish national policy and reflects a more centralized, countrywide approach.

In contrast, the ISTE Standards were developed for use by education leaders, teacher educators, technology coaches and teachers to accelerate teaching with technology. Intentionally flexible, the ISTE Standards can be adapted to support national or local education policy goals. Because ISTE does not prescribe a process or a policy pathway, innovative educators, schools, states or nations can adopt or adapt the ISTE Standards to meet local, state or national goals. Thus, the ISTE Standards can be used in a decentralized or “grassroots” approach toward educational reform.

The UNESCO framework was designed to prepare teachers to participate in broader national programs, perhaps accounting for the inclusion of policy components in each of the three approaches. The framework’s three approaches also allow for multiple entry points, based on teacher skill and knowledge level.

Comparing Structures: UNESCO framework and ISTE StandardsUNESCO, ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, 2011, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf

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ISTE STANDARDS FOR TEACHERSORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

UNDERSTANDING ICT IN EDUCATION

CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT

PEDAGOGYICT

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

TECHNOLOGY LITERACY

UNESCO ICT COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHERS

KNOWLEDGEDEEPENING

KNOWLEDGECREATION

The ISTE Standards for Teachers were designed to support the implementation of the ISTE Standards for Students. The skills, knowledge and dispositions embodied in the standards are aspirational, and ISTE encourages educators to use them to inspire and guide growth and development, rather than to assess teachers’ skills.

The two models also diverge in the descriptors of the competencies.

The UNESCO framework focuses primarily on knowledge-based descriptors, even in the Knowledge Creation approach. For example, “Identify and discuss how students learn …” or “Describe the function and purpose …” reflect knowledge-based competencies. There are also a few places where the descriptors use more generalized language such as “Help students to …” without describing more concrete measurable skills. There are relatively few places where the UNESCO framework reflects performance-based indicators. “Design online materials …” or “Design units of study …” and “Play a leading role in …” are among the exceptions.

The ISTE Standards descriptors, however, are written to be fairly specific, including measurable performance-based indicators. Descriptors such as “Model and facilitate …” or “Customize and personalize …” demand a higher level of evidence to demonstrate mastery. The specificity of the ISTE Standards indicators was purposeful and designed to allow teachers to translate them easily into lesson plans and assessments.

While the two models differ, each plays a strategic role in systemic transformation of education.

How the models can work togetherAs the similarities and differences described so far suggest, the two models complement each other in a number of ways, each providing structure or content that can enhance or enrich the other. For example, together the ISTE Standards and the UNESCO framework can be seen as a continuum or progression of teacher goals and skills. The ISTE Standards can be used to extend the UNESCO framework by providing more specific, in-depth goals and benchmarks to guide teacher development. The UNESCO framework can be used to extend the ISTE Standards by showing how they can be linked to larger educational or policy goals (see Complementary Models figure below).

Likewise, the UNESCO framework can be used to guide education transformation in a centralized way with a view toward promoting cooperation and consistency. The ISTE Standards can be used to complement that approach by promoting a more role-specific, bottom-up system of transformation that can build commitment from teachers and can work in situations where more independence and flexibility is desirable.

If, for example, a nation chooses to adapt the UNESCO framework to localize process and content, the ISTE Standards can be seen as an example of field-tested, research-based content that can inform its efforts. Or it may even adopt the ISTE Standards as its own, as some countries have done, and draw from the wealth of educator-created, ISTE Standards-aligned resources. In either case, the ISTE Standards can serve to “unpack” the UNESCO framework, particularly the Knowledge Creation approach.

Complementary ModelsTogether, the UNESCO framework and ISTE Standards represent a progression of education technology skills from a beginning level (technology literacy) to an advanced level (ISTE Standards).

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Examples of how the models can serve multiple audiencesThese are only a few examples of the similarities, differences and complementarities of these two models for education technology in primary and secondary grades. To enrich understanding and implementation of educational reform processes, policymakers might want to look at aspects of both models that could be helpful in their particular roles or from their particular organizations’ perspective. For example:

• National policymakers might use the two models together to see how larger policy goals, such as economic growth, can be linked to related plans for educational reform, first through the lens of a higher-level model and then through concrete examples of such programs.

• Educational policymakers might look at ways in which centralized and decentralized strategies for promoting and guiding educational transformation can work together to accelerate this change in a wide variety of real-world contexts.

• Educators might look at both models to explore how to plan the progression from basic technology literacy skills to higher-level learning skills and to simultaneously explore more deeply how specific skills can be translated into lesson plans and assessments.

ConclusionFuture innovation in education and technology will continue to disrupt virtually every industry and enterprise, presenting challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities for economic growth and human development. Education has not fully leveraged these innovations to advance technology-powered pedagogy, and yet, educators in every country are being called upon to prepare students for a world where they can adapt, contribute and thrive.

Both the ISTE Standards and the UNESCO framework are valuable and proven models to support the transition to digital learning, teaching and leading. Each model provides leaders and educators with necessary guidance to meet national goals and local needs. These models provide essential guides for leaders and educators to effectively plan for and launch sound, bold initiatives that engage and prepare teachers and their students for this new frontier.

©2015, ISTE. All rights reserved.

REFERENCES“ICT Competency Standards for Teachers: Competency Standards Modules.” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1 Jan 2008.

“ISTE Standards Essential Conditions.” ISTE Standards Essential Conditions. ISTE, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.iste.org/standards/essential-conditions>.

“ISTE Standards for Teachers.” ISTE Standards for Teachers. ISTE, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. <http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-teachers>.

Midoro, Vittorio. “Guidelines on Adaptation of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers.” UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. <http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/en/files/3214726.pdf>.

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education, 2008. Print.

“UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers.” Ed. Paul Hine. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2014. <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf>.

AUTHOR BIOSDavid Barr, Ph.D., is an independent consultant who works with business, government and nonprofit organizations in the areas of educational and technology planning and improvement. During more than 25 years in education, Dr. Barr has been director of online learning and director of information and communication systems at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, coordinator of academic computing at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and an instructor of English. Since 1998 Dr. Barr has been a member of the writing and leadership teams that developed the ISTE Standards. He also served on the development team for the Illinois Learning Standards and the Illinois State Technology Plan and on the planning team for the Illinois Century Network.

Carolyn Sykora is senior director of the ISTE Standards Program. She served on the ISTE Standards Leadership Team during the most recent revision of the ISTE Standards for students, teachers, administrators, technology coaches, technology directors and computer science educators. She works internationally to develop and deliver standards-infused professional learning for face-to-face and online learning programs to classroom teachers, curriculum coordinators and technology coaches. In addition, she directs ISTE’s relationship with the Council on the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, an accreditation body that recognizes institutions of higher education that use the ISTE Standards for their educator preparation programs.

ABOUT ISTEThe International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) is the premier nonprofit organization serving educators and education leaders committed to empowering connected learners in a connected world. ISTE serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world.

ISTE’s innovative offerings include the ISTE Conference & Expo – one of the biggest, most comprehensive ed tech events in the world – as well as the widely adopted ISTE Standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age and a robust suite of professional learning resources, including webinars, online courses, consulting services for schools and districts, books, and peer-reviewed journals and publications. Visit the ISTE website and connect with ISTE via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.