ISTE Standards for STUDENTS

Today’s students must be prepared to thrive in a constantly evolving technological landscape. The ISTE Standards for Students are designed to empower student voice and ensure that learning is a student-driven process. Connect with other educators in the ISTE Standards Community and learn how to use the standards in the classroom with the ISTE Standards for Students ebook.

Dive into the standards. New teacher resources now available!

Explore the Student standards

Empowered Learner

Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

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Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Recognize and evaluate the steps taken to meet learning goals—What worked? Why did things unfold as they did? What could be approached differently? What will you do differently in the future?

Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.

Build networks: Enrich learning by making online connections with other learners and experts for personal or academic interests, for example, via social media, connecting through email, video conferencing, digital pen pals, etc.

Learning environments: Local, physical and online environments, both formal and informal.

Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

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Digital Citizen

Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.

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Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.

Digital identity and reputation: How an individual is represented online in the public domain, based on activities, connections or tagging, for example, social media posts, photos, public online comments/reviews, awareness and monitoring of how others are depicting you online.

Permanence of their actions: Digital content is everlasting, even when individuals delete it or believe privacy settings fully protect them from scrutiny.

Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online.

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Knowledge Constructor

Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

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Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

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Innovative Designer

Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

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Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.

Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

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Computational Thinker

Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

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Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.

Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.

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Creative Communicator

Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

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Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

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Global Collaborator

Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

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Students use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning.

Articulate and set personal learning goals: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Learning process itself: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints.

Building networks and learning environments: Age-appropriate opportunities for students to have a say in their learning goals and make choices on how to meet them.

Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

Students explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions.

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ISTE Standards for

Students

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Related resources:

• Free ISTE Standards for Students poster! Download now and print for your classroom.
• Discover ways to adopt the Standards
• Join the ISTE Standards Community
• Get online PD grounded in the ISTE Standards for Students
• Bring the standards to the classroom with the ISTE Standards for Students ebook

How have the ISTE Standards for Students evolved?

1998

Learning to use technology

2007

Using technology to learn

2016

ISTE Standards for STUDENTS

Explore the Student standards

Empowered Learner

Digital Citizen

Knowledge Constructor

Innovative Designer

Computational Thinker

Creative Communicator

Global Collaborator

Students

Learning to use technology

Using technology to learn

Transformative learning with technology