Blog 1: ISTE vs. AASL Standards

-



Image by StartupStockPhotos



 Hey all,


In education, standards tell us exactly what students should learn and serve as the foundation on which we craft our lessons, units, learning goals, and essential questions. This week’s module introduced two sets of standards related to the school library:  International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards and The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards.   


There are similarities in the ISTE and AASL standards.  Both are tools for planning and both are useful for establishing the content mastery that should be attained.  Both sets of standards share some common emphasis.  Both sets of standards compliment each other and when used in tandem can help enrich the experience for learners and educators.  I found the PDF with the walkover table especially helpful in illustrating how these standards can work together and compliment each other.


In the article Now Serving an Appealing Menu of Digital Literacy Tools and Resources, Mary Lou Caron O’Connor discusses how she and the other librarians in her district worked together to align her district’s library standards the AASL Standards and ISTE Standards for Students to create posters not only for the benefit of the students but also to serve as a guide for interactions with everyone (O’Connor).  In her “menu” style projects, O’Connor weaves together the AASL domains with familiar ISTE standards such as digital citizenship, constructor, and empowered learner.  


While both sets of standards have value and are useful in planning, they are very different tools.  One difference that really stands out to me is that the student ISTE standards are more closely focused on STEM and its integration across the curriculum with a heavy emphasis on the technology component.  ISTE looks much more like traditional classroom standards that I see in high school - fairly cut and dry and very easy to use in the creation of an objective and learning goal. The ISTE standards are cross curricular and can be incorporated in the media center as well as being supporting standards in a classroom, although in my time as a teacher I have only seen them referenced in computer science and technology classes.  


The student AASL standards strike me as being much more library centered Also rather than specific bullet points to hit they serve as more of big idea with details on how to branch out from the big idea.  One thing that I really liked was how they had the AASL standards in both a table format as well as being able to click on the individual domains and seeing how we can implement concepts with the core idea being at the center.  


The AASL standards are designed with the school library, learners, and librarians in mind.  It seems that in the realm of the media center, they are designed to be the priority standards with the ISTE serving as support.  I am interested to hear how others feel about this and I look forward to interacting with you guys in the comments section.


Thanks for reading.


Lauren 


ISTE Standards:



AASL Standards 




I am linking another article that I found interesting - it goes into how ISTE standards might look when put into practice in the media center.  

Librarians Are Key to Education's Digital Transformation  


Citations:

American Association of School Librarians Standards Framework  (2017). AASL Standards Framework. AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf


American Association of School Librarians  [American Association of School Librarians]. (2017, November). AASL Standards - Standards Structure  [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/LwuJgX9wxgA



Caron O’Connor, M. L. (2019). now serving AN APPEALING MENU OF DIGITAL LITERACY TOOLS & RESOURCES. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 16–21.


International Society for Technology in Education. (2017). The ISTE Standards. Eugene, OR. https://www.iste.org/iste-standards  


  International Society for Technology in Education. [ISTE]. (2016, June). Introducing the ISTE                              Standards  [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/mDCAnJ8NnFA

Comments

  1. Sam HowardJanuary 19, 2023 at 10:52 AM

    Lauren,
    I enjoyed how you touched on the accessibility of the standards and how easy they are to use as a starting point for designing lessons/instruction. I also enjoyed the walkover or crosswalk documents that showed how well the two sets of standards paired together. While I had explored the AASL standards before this module, I had never seen the ISTE standards and at first was very confused on how they could be incorporated into my library lessons. The crosswalk document and example lessons on their personal website were very beneficial to my understanding of their implementation.
    Thank you for sharing your analysis!
    -Sam Howard

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lauren January 19, 2023 at 11:03 AM

    Hi Sam, thanks for the reply! I confess I have not seen ISTE much outside of Career & Tech classes in middle and high school. I found the crosswalk to be helpful in connecting them, but I agree that the AASL seems much more user friendly in the library setting. I look forward to learning more on this topic. Thanks again for the reply. -Lauren

    ReplyDelete
  3. Megan LaSaneJanuary 19, 2023 at 2:00 PM

    Lauren, I agree that the ISTE standards are more STEM based, and can imagine these being used in a computer lab/STEM lab while the AASL standards are for sure more library focused. As libraries are becoming more technology based with one-to-one learning I can see a potential bridge for more opportunities for ISTE standards to be used in school libraries. I think they could be useful when teaching students research skills and the importance of leaving a positive digital footprint.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jennifer RingJanuary 20, 2023 at 1:51 PM

    Hi Lauren,
    Thanks for your post. I, too found the crosswalks very helpful. I also like the visual and searchable aspect of them. As we move around to different positions in a school during our career (teacher, librarian, administrator) we will likely pivot on the standards that we focus on. These crosswalks show us that there are always a lot of overlap. And alternatively, there is always some new area of skills that we can develop.
    I found your bonus article very helpful as well. Since it was written from the ISTE standpoint, it shows that the ISTE standards do take librarians and libraries into consideration, not just the technology-based learner/student.
    Thank you,
    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog 5: Resources for Accessibility - The Envision App

-
Image
  Image is From Envision Site - This is the App Logo  Hello friends! I am excited to share with you an app that you can incorporate as an adaptive technology in the classroom and in the library.  Envision is a FREE multipurpose recognition app that will help your visually impaired students.  Older articles may list the app as having a subscription cost but as of July 25, 2022 the app became free with the 3.0 update.  The app is available for iOS and Android.   I know that you may be thinking “We already HAVE text readers!”  You are correct, and I am not diminishing the value of those, but Envision can do so much more than text reading and your students can use it as an adaptive technology in so many ways in the classroom and beyond.  Since there are different degrees of visual impairment not every student will need every feature but I love that this app is so inclusive.   Let me share with you some features.  I have taken these...
Read more

Blog 6: Social Media in School Library Instruction, Communication, and Advocacy

-
Image
Hello everyone! Today’s post focuses on creating a social media account for the school library media center and how I plan to use this account for collaboration / instruction, communication, and advocacy in the future.  Since I am not a working school librarian, I chose to create an account for a hypothetical school library media center.  My hypothetical school is Pleasantville Elementary School which serves kindergarten through 5th grade.  The mascot is the Wise Owl.   Creating the Account I was on the fence about Facebook vs. Instagram.  After reading through Dr. Green’s presentation, my first thought was to use Facebook since it is widely used by grandparents and parents.  I ended up changing my mind simply due to Facebook’s requirements to link a business page with a personal account.  I had gone through the process of creating a “Fakebook” by using a combination of my hypothetical school’s name as my first and last name, but then after resear...
Read more

Blog 2: Information Literacy for 21st Century Learners

-
Image
  Most of the ideas and concepts in the reading, resources, and podcast were already  familiar to me as I have been teaching digital and information literacy as part of my computer classes for several years now but it was a great reminder and gave me some new ways to present this to my students. One new resource was the P21 Framework.  The first thing I noticed about the P21 Framework was how it shares many similarities with the Profile of A South Carolina Graduate Competencies.  Although there are minor differences, both formats present critical thinking, information / media literacy, innovation, and collaboration as being as important as the traditional academics.  I agree that it is important to learn traditional knowledge, but today the 21st century skills  are vital for success in any post high school path that our students choose.  As a CTE teacher I work with business partners in the community and help students explore future careers. I ca...
Read more