The ISTE Certified Educator

This month, I received my ISTE Certified Educator badge. The process involved a two-day seminar, face-to-face, in Arlington, VA, back in August. This was followed by a month-long online program.

The tasks were not too daunting. The hard part was the portfolio requirement which asked participants to generate artifacts covering 24 of the ISTE for Educators standards elements.

I missed one or two and the points were fair(ish). For the standard covering Digital Citizenship, for example, I shared work my students did such as the development of TED-Ed Lessons. I was critiqued for embracing the "old, fear-based" approach to Digital Citizenship. Well, good call, I guess. Teacher Candidates need to start somewhere and need to have an idea of what to do when a student comes to them in crisis. But ISTE has a point that good Digital Citizenship should be more than a list of DON'Ts.

The certificate is good for two years.