The non-profit International Institute for Educational Technology (ISTE) and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) have merged into one large non-profit last month after ASCD members voted on a deal previously approved by both organizations’ boards of directors. It’s going to be. Joint news release.
After the merger takes effect in January, each entity will continue to use their respective brands, including membership services and annual conferences. The name of the combined nonprofit will be governed by a joint board of directors, but has not yet been decided, the announcement said.
ASCD interim CEO and executive director Sandy Husk, who served as an educator and superintendent early in her career, said: government technology Conversations about curriculum and instruction should never be separated from conversations about innovation in the classroom. The merger brings these two topics into one.
“This will take time [ASCD] From curriculum, teaching and pedagogical content to innovation and digital, it’s about learning and thinking at the same time,” said Husk. “So as soon as you get [curriculum and innovation] Coordination really enhances everyone’s experience. ”
ISTE CEO Richard Clutter, who leads the combined organization, said the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the timeline for technology in education. He said school districts could get by without certain digital tools in their classrooms before the early 2020 school closures, but that is no longer the case, and ISTE and his ASCD are committed to digital education. We are working together to support the new reality.
“We and the organizations that support educators must make the necessary changes to support their reality,” Culatta said. government tech“That’s part of this too.”
According to Culatta, technology solutions must be effective to achieve improved and productive learning, and ISTE is helping the education technology industry achieve that goal.
“Technology industry [needs] Building products that align more closely with the principles of learning science and more closely with the principles of highly effective learning [and] It’s a user experience geared toward creating a more equitable and inclusive learning environment,” said Culatta. “So you can also see that we are giving the industry an important boost to build better things.”
At the same time, Culatta said schools need to improve their procurement processes. He said many school districts are asking themselves the same questions about acquiring tech tools that they ask about desks and stacks of paper.
“We need to help the people making these decisions have the information they need to make that decision and know the kinds of things they should ask,” he said.
Culatta added that the combined expertise of the organization will address information sharing between technology companies and educators to ensure that new technologies meet the needs of schools. Acquisition, he said, is just one step when schools invest in new classroom technology, Husk added, adding that professional development is essential to making it effective.
“If you just sell educators something new, but don’t provide them with the proper support to learn the runway, the space, and how to implement it, there will be resistance and confusion. You’ll get wasted money,” Husk said.
Culatta echoed that sentiment by claiming that training is one of the major focuses of the merger.
“One of the things we stress a lot is that the most important factor for successful technology implementation is professional learning for teachers,” he said. “It is therefore likely that in the future, ISTE and ASCD together will really double what the future of professional learning looks like.”
