Los Angeles is the first school district in the U.S. to adopt 鈥渞efreshed鈥� student technology standards unveiled this week by the International Society for Technology in Education. The move marks a significant pivot in how the country鈥檚 second-largest school system is thinking about educational technology.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about leading with instruction, instead of leading with a tool,鈥� said Frances Gipson, who was last November in the wake of a botched 1-to-1 iPad initiative that has become a prime example of how not to embrace educational technology in K-12.
The revised ISTE standards don鈥檛 mention any specific technologies or tools that students should be using. Instead, they focus on the skills and qualities that young people need in order to develop the following identities:
- Empowered learners, who use technology to shape and choose their own learning paths.
- Digital citizens, who 鈥渞ecognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world.鈥�
- Knowledge constructors, who draw on a mix of digital tools and resources to actively explore real-world issues.
- Innovative designers, with the ability to 鈥渋dentify and solve problems by creating new, useful, or imaginative solutions.鈥�
- Computational thinkers, who can use technology to develop and test solutions.
- Creative communicators, who can express themselves 鈥渇or a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.鈥�
- Global collaborators, who can work with others using digital tools.
In an interview, Jim Flanagan, ISTE鈥檚 chief learning-services officer, described the standards as 鈥渁spirational,鈥� saying they are not meant to be used as a compliance checklist. About 20 states make some kind of formal use of the standards, which were originally released in 1998 and last revised in 2007.
The most recent 鈥渞efresh鈥� process took more than a year, involving more than 2,700 people (including 295 students) from 52 countries. In conjunction with the new standards, the organization also released an implementation toolkit, an e-book, and other online resources.
Flanagan offered two examples of how the standards have evolved. Prior versions included an emphasis on helping students learn how to use technology, he said. Now, though, the 鈥渃omputational thinker鈥� standard in particular focuses on helping students understand how technology actually works鈥�"what does it mean when I click?鈥� as Flanagan put it.
Likewise, the notion of digital citizenship has evolved from preventing such problems as cyberbullying to proactively helping students learn to 鈥渆mbrace these powerful new tools in ways that are appropriate and ethical,鈥� he said.
In Los Angeles, those shifts mirrored a shift in mindset that began after the district鈥檚 earlier Common Core Technology Project unraveled, Gipson said. That initiative, spearheaded by former superintendent John Deasy, aimed to quickly put hundreds of thousands of iPads in the hands of students and staff, but fell apart over poor planning, scattershot deployment, major problems with the digital curriculum that was supposed to come installed on each device, and the lack of a coherent notion for how the new technology would reshape teaching and learning.
The end result was a series of high-profile resignations, an , critical reports from an independent evaluator, and a steady stream of negative headlines throughout 2013 and 2014.
By the spring of last year, Gipson said, then-superintendent Ramon Cortines 鈥渁sked that we shift to being about an instructional vision.鈥� A series of task forces reviewed the research conducted by LAUSD鈥檚 independent evaluator, the recently released , and the practices of 鈥渃utting-edge鈥� districts, she said, ultimately concluding that its priorities were very much in line with the direction being undertaken by ISTE.
Now, Gipson said, the district is still providing devices and digital tools to students and schools. But its focus is on being student-centered and flexible, with a smarter approach to change management鈥攁nd a new set of guideposts to steer its work.
鈥淭he ISTE standards [have] the exact same language we were coming to from our own study,鈥� Gipson said. 鈥淚t was an 鈥榓ha!鈥� moment.鈥�
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