ICTs and TeaCher CompeTenCIes

Technology is a critical component of education in the 21 st century; today's students live in a global world and need to compete intellectually with peers worldwide. Data suggest that digital tools and strong pedagogy may help schools employ the best strategies for student achievement of both traditional and 21 st-century skills. The goal of information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in schools is not simply to use ICTs more effectively in teaching; rather, the goal is to impact and improve economic development at many levels through the use of ICTs. Learners around the world are comfortable using technology for daily connecting, creating, and sharing. The students in our classrooms today are the first to have grown up with digital tools at their fingertips; using those tools, students interact with information, create knowledge, and communicate their results to a real audience. Digital tools are always " on " , accessible anywhere there is Internet access, and many are collaborative. Learners have an expectation that their education will include the same authentic, relevant, and interactive characteristics. However, despite the great potential of technology as a catalyst for transformative change in education, it has yet to be widely implemented. Today, new conditions exist that make it possible for technology to impact education for all. Technology is more readily available everywhere; even inexpensive mobile phones are capable of interacting with the world in ways previously unimagined. Our students are interconnected and ready; it is our teachers who require support for understanding when and how to use ICTs in teaching and learning in order to engage with and enrich students' experiences. Education change, however, is a complicated process; it rarely happens by itself, and all components of this system (access, teachers, administrators, learners, ICTs) are essential but still not sufficient to have the impact that is required for larger systemic change. Multiple organizations have identified goals for classroom deployment of ICTs and frameworks and standards for educators in the use of these tools. Now several factors are interacting so that it is even more imperative that educators have the ICT skills identified by UNESCO and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). These factors include a growing need for instruction in new skills (information, technological, and visual literacies), awareness that students have changed but educational practices have not, and an awareness of the needs around the world for students who can contribute to …