Standard V: Productivity and Professional Practice

Standard V: Productivity and Professional Practice addresses meeting the learning needs of students via the educators' use of technology to enhance productivity and professional learning opportunities. This standard also relates directly to ISTE's essential conditions of skilled personnel and ongoing professional development.

Technology facilitators are expected to be knowledgeable on a myriad of productivity products such as word processors, presentation platforms, communication software, spreadsheets, etc. By contextualizing these skills, providing these platforms in a format that meet teacher's needs for integration into their skill set or curriculum, technology facilitators can shorten the learning curve of these products and help bolster productivity more quickly.

Technology facilitators and leaders assume the role of developing and hosting professional learning opportunities for teachers. Leaders assume more of the needs evaluation and program development where facilitators assist teachers with implementation of program components into the classroom. Facilitators are also instrumental in helping teachers form professional learning communities through modeling and ongoing support, as well as disseminating information from research done as part of ongoing learning and research. One point of caution is for the technology facilitator not to become an enabler, whereas facilitators actually do the legwork and teachers don't have the opportunity to internalize the new learning.

Facilitators and leaders of technology stretch across boundaries of helping teachers with productivity, helping teachers and parents via improved communication methods, and helping forge community bonds via information available to the public. Technology leaders are instrumental in developing policy, whereas facilitators disseminate information at the building level.

Using distance education programs has been easy thus far in my journey to becoming a qualified technology facilitator since I'm pursuing my degree program online. Standard V stresses the importance of continually growing a researched-based body of knowledge by staying abreast of research and trends and staying current on integration of new productivity tools into curriculum. Understanding adult learning preferences and providing opportunities for authentic collaboration that is timely and convenient to the end user, the teachers, is critical in creating a wave of change in a school setting. Being readily available for ideas, modeling, and coteaching can encourage staff to come to the facilitator, ready to implement new technologies into their teaching and learning.