While different sectors of society have felt varying effects of government responses to COVID-19, the education sector has felt it particularly strongly: elementary-aged children, and their parents and teachers, for example, have had to learn to cope with the challenges of learning online: away from the teachers from whom they are used to getting one-to-one help quickly when they have a question, and away from their classmates who make group work engaging and make recess a delight. Immigrants with few or no literacy skills in English are unable to study at all, the alternative being online study using technology as intimidating to them as the language they need to learn. In our universities, faculty whose primary focus is research and who may have invested only very limited time and energy in preparing their lectures or seminars, are being forced to (re)think the method by which they present content to their students and assess the learning that is supposed to take place. This requires time, energy, and . . . skill.
Skill; skill at using technology in particular. But specific skills are we referring to here? How can instructors–in the case our field, English language teachers and teacher trainers–know which skills they need, and by which they can assess their readiness to work with technology in the classroom, be it a physical or virtual classroom?
Thankfully, TESOL.org has published a book on technology standards in TESOL, and also posted on its website a downloadable framework of the standards1. The technology standards are arranged by means of four general goals, within which are listed standards related to each goal and “performance indicators” which serve as means of assessing the extent to which a particular teacher has met the standard in question. For the sake of space, only the goals and standards are listed here. The performance indicators and the framework within which they were developed can be accessed using the link at the bottom of this page.
The four general goals and underlying standards are as follows:
GOAL 1. LANGUAGE TEACHERS ACQUIRE AND MAINTAIN FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN TECHNOLOGY FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES.
Standard 1: Language teachers demonstrate knowledge and skills in basic technological concepts and operational competence, meeting or exceeding TESOL technology standards for students in whatever situation they teach.
Standard 2: Language teachers demonstrate an understanding of a wide range of technology supports for language learning and options for using them in a given setting.
Standard 3: language teachers actively strive to expand their skill and knowledge base to evaluate, adopt, and adapt emerging technologies throughout their careers.
Standard 4: Language teachers use technology in socially and culturally appropriate, legal, and ethical ways.
GOAL 2. LANGUAGE TEACHERS INTEGRATE PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS WITH TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING.
Standard 1: Language teachers identify and evaluate technological resources and environments for suitability to their teaching context.
Standard 2: Language teachers coherently integrate technology into their pedagogical approaches.
Standard 3: Language teachers design and manage language learning activities and tasks using technology appropriately to meet curricular goals and objectives.
Standard 4: Language teachers use relevant research findings to inform the planning of language learning activities and tasks that involve technology.
GOAL 3. LANGUAGE TEACHERS APPLY TECHNOLOGY IN RECORD-KEEPING, FEEDBACK, AND ASSESSMENT.
Standard 1: Language teachers evaluate and implement relevant technology to aid in effective learner assessment.
Standard 2: Language teachers use technological resources to collect and analyze information in order to enhance language instruction and learning.
Standard 3: language teachers evaluate the effectiveness of specific student uses of technology to enhance teaching and learning.
GOAL 4. LANGUAGE TEACHERS USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION, COLLABORATION, AND EFFICIENCY.
Standard 1: language teachers use communication technologies to maintain effective contact and collaboration with peers, students, administration, and other stakeholders.
Standard 2: Language teachers regularly reflect on the intersection of professional practice and technological developments so that they can make informed decisions regarding the use of technology to support language learning and communication.
Standard 3: Language teachers apply technology to improve efficiency in preparing for class, grading, and maintaining records.
These standards, goals and the performance indicators included in the framework can be used both as self-assessment tools by individual teachers and as tools in teacher-training programs to gauge the readiness of both new and experienced teachers to use technology effectively in the “classroom” in whatever physical or virtual space the teacher is planning to work in.
TESOL Solutions 