ISTE Establishes New Standards for Students
One important change that has occured since our 5th edition was published has been the "refreshing" (their term not ours) of the ISTE standards for students. The new standards are available from the ISTE site. The original NET-S were released in 1998 so given the pace of change in this area it was probably time for a refreshed version.
It might be helpful for you to contrast the original standards (listed on page 26 of the book) with the refreshed standards available from the ISTE web site. We do not include the new standards here because of the clear copyright statement included on the ISTE site (our release from ISTE is for the material published in the book). What do you see as the main difference?
Our analysis is that the original standards were worded to emphasize student capability to use technology tools (e.g., a phrase emphasing student use of the tool to perform some task was a common way of explaining what a standard emphasized) and the newer standards emphasize the knowledge or skill the application of the tool is to influence. Hence, "Technology communications tools" becomes "communication and collaboration" (and possible some other skill areas). So, the emphasis is more on the skills or knowledge to be gained from the use of technology and less on the skill in using the technology.
New standards for teachers are scheduled to be released in 2008.