Both NETS for Teachers and NETS for Students devote entire sections to system conditions that must exist to ensure reasonable expectation of success with technology. For example, staff across the system, regardless of their specific responsibilities, must understand and share the vision of technology for learning, teaching, management, and operations. Educators must have consistent and convenient access to high-quality, relevant professional development for using technology in school improvement. And, technical assistance, including mentoring, must be available to educators as they use technology to enhance learning and teaching. So, it turns out national consensus on technology in schools is very much about leading, doing, and supporting education well, and not much about technology.
Standards focus on educational benefits achieved when technology is used well.
Whether one leads a classroom of second grade learners, provides grade-levelleadership, acts as department chair, supervises science instruction district wide, serves as a building principal, or works from the perspective of the superintendent's cabinet, technology standards are an essential and credible resource for continuous improvement. Planning engaging, technology-supported lessons such as those in Connecting Curriculum and Technology provides an excellent opportunity for an individual classroom teacher to advocate, backed by national consensus, for the necessary connectivity to support the learning experience. The profiles for technology literate students from NETS for Students provide common expectations within a grade-level team as it struggles to know the level of technology proficiency to expect, and the level for which they strive, as they design common curriculum and learning experiences. Both resources are powerful allies, too, as a district supervisor supports infusion of technology for enhanced learning within a specific academic discipline. Design of staff development and recommendations of initial ventures into student-centered learning suddenly draws its credibility from national consensus.