ISTE Coaching Standard 3: Digital Age Learning Environments Indicators 3b & 3e

3b: Maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resources for teacher and student use in technology-rich learning environments

3e: Troubleshoot basic software, hardware, and connectivity problems common in digital learning environments

ISTE Coaching Standards (2014)

Resonant Ideas:  Manage and troubleshoot digital tools and resources for teachers and students

A teacher I spoke to recently said “There are just so many tools available. It’s overwhelming to know which one to use.”  Indicator 3b calls on technology coaches to curate and manage digital resources so that they can be accessed and used by the teachers and students who need them. Indicator 3e asks coaches to be able to troubleshoot these same tools.  

Never, in the history of ed tech, have these skills been more needed. At the time I wrote the posts that pertain to these indicators, the tools and practices were somewhat hypothetical to me. Now they are a lifeline. 

In my post Building Independent Learners, I compiled a list of things necessary, based on my research, for helping students become independent learners. Number 2 on the list is “make resources available,” and I describe a number of curation products for organizing information and recording apps for instructions or demonstrations. Resources can include people, as well as documents and videos, and in my post Making in Elementary: Finding the Balance, I describe how maker tools need to be connected to expert adults who can help younger children understand how to use them.

Coaches need to help teachers be independent users of tech as well.  I have been putting together a bi-weekly tech tips and solutions document for our school. In it I try to gather what we have learned as a team and distill it down to brief blurbs with links, if needed, to more detailed instructions. Even if teachers don’t have time to read them, having created the documents or screencasts, we have them at the ready if someone asks. They are also housed in our school OneNote.

There are so many pieces required for successful technology use in schools, but without available resources for finding, using, and troubleshooting digital tools, these valuable assets will go unused.

css.php