TESOL Technology Standards Framework

Teachers have long used technology in teaching. The pace and extent of change in technology for teaching, however, have made it difficult for many teachers, teacher educators, and administrators to know how best to employ computers, other forms of digital technology, and the global interaction enabled by the Internet in language teaching. These Technology Standards, gleaned from practice and research, focus on how English language teachers, teacher educators, and administrators can and should use technology in and out of the classroom. These standards build on work done by the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), but have a strong focus on pedagogy specific to English language teaching (ELT). They are designed to be applicable to teachers and students at a range of English proficiency levels in many English language teaching and learning settings around the world. The authors recognize that technology remains intimidating to many teachers but strongly believe that the appropriate use of technology by a trained teacher can greatly benefit language learners. Administrators and teacher educators should also be aware of these standards in order to apply them when designing programs at their institutions.

The Project Team thanks the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Standards Committee, the anonymous reviewers, and the many teachers, graduate students, teacher educators, and administrators whose comments on draft versions of this document helped shape the current version.

In Memory of Vance Stevens

Vance Stevens was an exceptional teacher and inspirational mentor to countless educators. He was a driving force to advance English teaching in the Virtual worlds as a remarkable educator with a strong but humble presence in an educators’ world and a passionate belief in collaboration between both educators and young digital natives.

Vance Stevens was a co-founding member and an early chair of the Computer Assisted Language Learning Interest Section in 1984. Vance Stevens was an online pioneer; he founded the Communities of Practice Webheads in Action in 2002 and has participated in coordinating the TESOL Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Interest Section’s Electronic Village Online (EVO) since 2003. He hosted the podcast series Learning2gether, which has more than 520 episodes. He was lead moderator of EVO Minecraft MOOC since it began in 2015.

The CALL-IS will be hosting an event in Portland, Oregon at the annual TESOL Convention to honor Vance’s legacy. We invite any who wish to leave memories of Vance in the comments for this post. We plan to read at least some of the memories from this page during this event.

The CALL-IS is also sponsoring a fundraiser to establish a TESOL Award in honor of Vance’s legacy to support the professional development and research of teachers worldwide. If you would like to contribute to the fundraiser, you can donate through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/donate/1518513225226640/10162076083742439/. You can also donate to TESOL directly at their website, https://sites.tesol.org/MemberPortal/Fundraising/Sign_In_to_Donate_Awards.aspx?WebsiteKey=0d1b66b8-c087-413e-94b1-74021c640176. You will need to create an account, but you can donate even if you are not a member. After making your donation, follow-up with an email to awards@tesol.org stating that your donation is meant for the Vance Stevens award.

Call for CALL-IS Leadership Nominations

Dear CALL-IS Community,

Have you ever thought about taking on a leadership role in the CALL-IS?
We would like to announce our Call for Nominations for the following positions:

• CALL-IS Chair Elect (three-year service period as Chair Elect 2023-24, Chair 2024-25, Past Chair 2025-26); nominations for Co-Chairs Elect are welcome.
• Steering Committee Members-at-Large
(three positions with a three-year service period, 2023-2026).

Please read the information below to familiarize yourself with the roles, the expected service responsibilities, and how to submit nominations.