Sometime in November 2018, I was reviewing a new proposed instructor evaluation framework document and stumbled upon the acronym “ISTE” which I had not seen before. I headed off to the internet to discover that it is an organization with interest in assisting educators in the use of technology in education.

The ISTE organization has create, among other things, a set of standards about how education can be enhanced with technology.

In the college that I am teaching in, we are extremely lucky by the fact that we teach in computer labs with relatively small classes (no more than 24 students) meaning that students have access to technology if and when it is necessary.  In fact, most of my classes are taught using less lecture style and more hands on.  A typical class might have me introducing a concept for 10 minutes with a small demonstration followed by the students working on more and more advanced applications of the techniques for the next 20-50 minutes followed by a second round.  Some topics, which are more difficult for the students grasp, I have occasionally put together simple interactive simulations that allow the student to visualize how certain IT topics actually work.

While reading through the ISTE standards for educators, I was most intrigued by the section called “Designer” because I am frequently creating the small simulators but even with a quick glance at the ISTE standards, it is clear that I have been missing some things that could significantly enhance the student’s learning and perhaps even allow the students to learn things more independently at their own pace.

In addition to the designer role, the ISTE standards for educators also contain a section called “Collaborator”.  Rather than just providing a small group of students with the ability to learn from the activities that I am creating it would be highly beneficial to share my experiences with other educators who can read about what things have worked for me and even to provide other instructors with access to the learning activities that I’ve created.  This website sill server at the collaboration area.

About the Author

Robert Ford is an instructor in the School of Business Management and Information Technology primarily teaching software programming courses. 

I have 15 years of experience at the college and university level teaching as well as 8 years in the software development industry.