The internet is a powerful tool that gives students access to more information than children ever had in the past. It’s the role of the teacher to teach students how to use the internet in a way that is safe, productive, and empowering. The ISTE standards frame a path forward that will help teachers show their students how to use the internet in empowering ways.

The ISTE Standards for Educators ask, broadly, that teachers use the internet to enhance their teaching practice, without depending on the internet to provide instruction or blindly allowing students to guide themselves through the internet. They ask that teachers serve as Learners, Leaders, Citizens, Collaborators, Designers, Facilitators, and Analysts. They ask that teachers continually commit to learning more about how to best use the internet in the classroom, lead other teachers in the ways they know best, practice good digital citizenship, collaborate with students and other educators, work to design helpful learning experiences for their students, facilitate learning experiences for their students, and use resources like data to drive their instruction.

The ISTE Standards for Students ask that students become Empowered Learners, Digital Citizens, Knowledge Constructors, Innovative Designers, Computational Thinkers, Creative Communicators, and Global Collaborators. It asks that students use technology to take an active role in their own learning. Technology allows students to personalize their learning, and students should be encouraged to “take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals.” Students should also be encouraged to act as good digital citizens. They should understand that the internet is a large, interconnected community that comes with both opportunities and responsibilities. The standards also draw attention to the fact that students can work and collaborate with people outside their geographic proximity, and asks that students learn ways to do so productively.

We need to critique digital and internet resources in order to ensure we are using the internet to increase our knowledge base, instead of undermining it. It is possible to put just about anything on the internet -- the information does not need to be verified! Students need to learn where to find reliable information. It can be challenging to decipher “fake news” from real, verified information, but the best way to do so is to use trusted sources. News organizations like CNN and NPR can be relied on consistently to provide accurate information. Academic organizations like Khan Academy, BrainPOP, or JSTOR are also trusted sources. Even sites like Wikipedia have enacted measures that allow them to maintain accurate informational posts. When students dig deeper into the internet, they need to act more critically. It’s important to look at the domain names of websites. Sites that have a .gov, .org, or .edu are not-for-profit, whereas websites that end in .com and .net rely on advertisements or have other sources of revenue. Students should keep in mind that any time they are on a website that ends in .com or .net, something is being advertised to him.

The internet is inextricable to our lives at this point, so it’s important to encourage students to engage with the internet in productive and meaningful ways. The ISTE standards encourage students and educators to think critically about their internet usage.