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.
