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For more than 10 years now ISTE has provided leadership in providing standards for Administrators, Teachers and Students. The organization recognizes that educational Computing and technology foundations are essential for all teachers.  Nowadays, ISTE represents more than 85,000 technology education professionals worldwide.

This  organization of great diversity, leads by presenting innovative educational technology books and programs; In addition to publishing National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), and the National Educational Computing Conference ,  ISTE publishes “Learning and Leading“ magazine, a wide assortment of books and classroom materials.

In other words, if you are looking for ways to integrate technology into the classroom or network with other professionals on education technology, you should look at the Professional Development opportunities offered through ISTE. (Most programs are available online while others are in-person events).Their web site is a rich source of materials, learning experiences, and more, but you need to be a member to access many of the resources. Among other things, membership offers:

• Webinars from many of today’s top Ed Tech professionals
• A Career Center (find or post jobs)
• Access to Special Interest Groups
• Discounted publications, books, periodicals, and more.
• Discounted attendance at their Annual Conference

(The 2010 conference will be held in June 27-30 in Denver).

They also acknowledge educational computing and technology specialty areas are beyond these foundations as they also offer podcasts, professional development and have purchased an “island” on the virtual world called Second Life.

ISTE is the organization responsible for the excellent guidelines which are now refreshed standards for initial and advanced programs that will assist teacher education units, and professional organizations and agencies in understanding and evaluating the educational preparation needed for specialization within the field.

For the future, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has identified 10 priorities essential for making good on this commitment in 2010:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Advocacy/Top_Ten_in_10.htm

For all details, visit ISTE’s Web site as it contains coverage of many topics relevant to the educational technology community:  http://www.iste.org

It can also be followed on Twitter @isteconnects