The standards set by both the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) and the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) provide a framework by which educators can prepare students to acquire the skills and attitudes that they will need in order to become knowledgeable, contributing members of society. While both sets of standards encourage inquiry based learning and place high importance on the incorporation of diverse perspectives and sources, AASL standards seem to focus on a conversation about acquiring and sharing diverse knowledge and information, whereas ISTE standards give learners the skills to utilize the digital tools necessary to carry out this process.
From an educational standpoint, AASL outlines Four Key Competencies in the learning process which seem to move in a never ending cycle of learning and developing new understandings.
- Think: Learners must think about a topic that interests them and formulate their questions. They must think about various perspectives that might contribute to that question and collaborate with others to create deeper meanings through engagement to fully understand what they are learning. ISTE standards compliment the knowledge seeking behaviors by giving learners the ability to the use technology to seek new information and build networks in a global community while learning how to safely and respectfully engage with others around the world.
- Create: Learners create products that illustrate their learning. To do this, they must represent diverse perspectives and be able to build connections with others to build on the existing body of knowledge. They must also use a variety of tools and resources to find the most effective way of locating and managing their new knowledge. Again, ISTE standards help learners find the best tools to accomplish this task, and like the AASL standards, it requires that learners explore real-world issues and take multiple perspectives into consideration.
- Share: Learners must then share what they have learned and engage with information shared by others. They must provide feedback and respond to feedback from their peers. They must engage in active debate and incorporate a multitude of perspective into their own understanding to broaden their views on the world around them. ISTE teaches learners to be creative and innovative in both the format and modalities of the presented information, but also in consideration of the most effective platforms in which to share their knowledge to encourage collaboration and further discussion.
- Grow: Finally, learners must reflect on these processes and use the information to inform new inquiry. They must constantly seek to learn new information and recognize that society depends on an informed citizenry that recognized the value of every member of society. This aligns with ISTE standards that charge learners continue to stay informed about real world events and continuously build on their knowledge to apply their understanding it to future advances in technology.
These concepts are closely intertwined and can be seen in evidence in Jenna Spiering’s 2019 article entitled Engaging Adolescent Literacies with the Standards. She states that traditional literacy instruction with print media is no longer sufficient as digital technologies allow for a much more broad and collaborative conversation with consideration for a much larger set of perspectives. Therefore, there must be an emphasis in not only learning how to utilize these new technologies, but also in finding ways to use these technologies to engage in collaborative conversations beyond what was previously only available in the classroom.
Additionally, technology has allowed for schools to utilize student’s out of school competencies, such as engagement with social media tools and news sources to incorporate even more perspectives into their information seeking behaviors. Even comics and graphic novels have gained more favor as it has been discovered that the images, space, color and dialogue require learners to both create their own and decode existing interpretations of presented materials.
As learners seek information, it is important that they develop understandings of how the vast amount of information available online could be skewed by bias or even blatant lies designed to misinform. They must develop the skills necessary to decipher truth from fiction as part of the ISTE standards, and then use the truths they learn, taking into account all of the diverse perspectives to inform their understanding as part of the AASL standards.
In order to develop literacy skills in the modern digital era, educators must ensure that their students not only develop the skills necessary to carry on informed discussions about the information they want to know about and share, as is the focus of AASL standards, but they must also utilize ISTE standards to develop the competencies to utilize all the technologies that are available to effectively find the information they are seeking and to collaborate with others to both broaden their understanding and share what they have learned.
References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). AASL standards framework for learners. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf.
ISTE Standards. (2016). International Society for Technology in Education. https://cdn.iste.org/www-root/PDF/ISTE%20Standards-One-Sheet_Combined_09-2021_vF3.pdf.
Spiering, J. (2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), pp. 44–49.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteThe way you broke this down and showed how closely the AASL and ISTE standards are related is eye opening. I can see how closely they are related but the way you put it in writing and into words really helped me see it more clearly. When looking at AASL and ISTE standards I feel they are so intertwined like you said that if you meet one standard in AASL you are more than likely meeting a standard in ISTE as well. School librarians are often led with the task of utilizing technology as well as being "keeper of the books". As a classroom teacher, I try to implement and learn new technology all the time because let's be honest, these kids know more than me. As an aspiring school librarian I look forward to being able to learn more and also help classroom teachers implement the ISTE standards in their classrooms as well as in the library.
Hi Renee, Thank you for your comments. I agree that it is often hard to distinguish between which standards are the focus when teaching information seeking behaviors to students. The distinction between a focus on reading and understanding the information as opposed to understanding the necessary technology and tools to find that information is clear, but there is a large overlap in inquiry based learning and seeking diverse perspectives. I am glad that both sets of standards place importance on these ideals. I believe they are the cornerstone of ensuring that future generations make decisions that are beneficial for all members of society, and that people never stop searching for ways to improve.
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