ISTE Standard for Coaches

ISTE Standard 7: Digital Citizen Advocate

Coaches model digital citizenship and support educators and students in recognizing the responsibilities and opportunities inherent in living in a digital world. Coaches:

1. Inspire and encourage educators and students to use technology for civic engagement and address challenges to improve their communities.
2. Partner with educators, leaders, students, and families to foster a culture of respectful online interactions and a healthy balance in their use of technology.
3. Support educators and students to critically examine the sources of online media and identify underlying assumptions.
4. Empower educators, leaders, and students to make informed decisions to protect their personal data and curate the digital profile they intend to reflect.

Mission Statement

As a teacher and educator, I am responsible for helping students become empowered learners (ISTE, 2021). A famous quote from Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world,” has inspired me to be a great teacher. Being a great teacher requires me not only to educate the mind but also to educate the heart; as another famous quote states, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Notably, complying with the technology advancement, I must be in line with the disruptive condition. Therefore, referring to Fisher’s lead in Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010), as an agent of change, educators are expected to possess characteristics or qualities that enable them to leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) resources as meaningful pedagogical tools. I believe that technology cannot replace great teachers, but it is transformational in the hands of great teachers (George Couros).

In the digital era, particularly in higher education, I am responsible for empowering students to transform their lives through the digital learning process. In this regard, encouraging students to be wiser in using technology during the learning process is compulsory. Meaning to say I am responsible for promoting learner agency to cultivate their potential and incorporate technology in their learning process (point 7a of the ISTE Standard). When students believe their actions can make a difference, they become more confident, engaged, and effective learners. These values are in line with point 7a of the ISTE Standard. Notably, if students know more profound ways and grow in wisdom, they must become reflective, reasonable, responsible, and active believers in truth. This way, students improve their communities (point 7a of the ISTE Standard) and foster a culture of respectful online interactions and a healthy balance in their use of technology (point 7b and 7c of the ISTE Standard). Furthermore, I am also responsible for empowering educators and leaders to make informed decisions to protect their personal data and curate the digital profile they intend to reflect (point 7d of the ISTE Standard).

Therefore, at the end of the Digital Education Leadership (DEL) Certificate Program, I can be an educator and education leader who empowers and transforms and encourages students, teachers, and leaders to be wiser in using technology.

As an EDUCATOR, I will assist students to:

• develop their motivation and engagement
• develop their goal orientation and self-direction (autonomy)
• develop their self-efficacy and self-confidence
• develop their metacognition and self-monitoring
• develop their persistence
• develop their responsibility for their own beliefs and work creatively in curating information
• develop their mindset, skillset, and outcome in the learning process
• promote equity, digital citizenship, and continuous improvement during the learning

As an EDUCATION LEADER, I will assist teachers to:

• engage in the social and professional community and growth
• support the global response by promoting digital literacy and citizenship
• be well trained and equipped to improve their accountability and quality
• partner and collaborate in the system building

Guiding Principles

There are three (3) guiding principles supporting my digital learning mission statement. They are empowering, holistic transformation, and wisdom in using technology.

1. Empowering

In education, empowering is a process that takes time and commitment on a teacher’s part to ensure that children and youth develop a positive self-image, have decision-making power, and, most importantly, have a range of options from which to make healthy, informed choices. In other words, promoting learner agency is the focus of the digital learning process.

Teachers play an essential role model empowering students with the necessary social and learning tools to deal with life’s many ups and downs. They proactively “model the way,” laying the foundation for lifelong learning. This way, the best teachers gently nudge students along the path to success. They often empower students to do more than they ever believed possible. However, teachers must apply limits and consequences to teach positive behavior for students to reach their potential. These life lessons help students to become self-reliant and capable adults. A classroom wherein the teacher encourages positive student behavior provides beneficial learning inside and outside the classroom (Denti, 2012).

This principle (empowering) is in line with point 7d of the ISTE standard, “Empower educators, leaders, and students to make informed decisions to protect their personal data and curate the digital profile they intend to reflect.”

2. Holistic Transformation

Education includes knowledge transfer, of course, yet Christian education is ultimately about the holistic transformation of people. This holistic transformation involves character formation, which depends on learning that is personal and relational (Paulus et al., 2019).

Teachers are expected to cultivate the mind and hearts of students to transform their characters. In other words, teachers educate both students’ hard skills and soft skills. Academic integrity is an example of an essential soft skill to promote among students. Notably, harnessing students’ hard and soft skills in digital learning environments is essential to balance their cognitive and emotional intelligence. Therefore, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework emphasizes that the concept and cultivation of social presence—or how authentic relationships with faculty, students, and content occur through mediated communications—are so important. Explicitly, this principle (holistic transformation) is highly supporting point 7b of ISTE standard, “Partner with educators, leaders, students, and families to foster a culture of respectful online interactions and a healthy balance in their use of technology.”

3. Wisdom in Using Technology

Michael Lynch in Paulus et al. (2019: 57) observes that the expansion of digital knowledge, paired with rapid technological change, is “affecting how we know and the responsibilities we have toward that knowledge.” When accessing information via the Internet, we are required to 1) take responsibility for our own beliefs and 2) work creatively to grasp and reason how information fits together.” This way, if we are to know in more profound ways and to grow in wisdom, we must become reflective, reasonable, responsible, and active believers in truth. This principle is explicitly in line with point 7b of ISTE standard, “Support educators and students to critically examine the sources of online media and identify underlying assumptions.” Also, this principle supports point 7a of ISTE standard, “Inspire and encourage educators and students to use technology for civic engagement and address challenges to improve their communities.”

References:

Denti, L. G. (2012). Empowering Students Through Proactive Teaching. In Proactive Classroom Management, K–8. A Practical Guide to Empower Students and Teachers. Monterey Bay, CA: California State University. https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/46479_denti_ch_1.pdf

Ertmer, P. A., and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T. (2010). Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, and Culture Intersect. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(3). pp. 255–284.EJ882506.pdf (ed.gov)

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE; 2021). Standards for Coaches.

Paulus, M. J., Baker, B. D., & Langford, M. D., (2019). A Framework for Digital Wisdom in Higher Education, Christian Scholar’s Review XLIX:1, pp. 41-61. https://works.bepress.com/michael_paulus/68/

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Retrieved from Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom (uoregon.edu)