The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has been in the forefront for developing technology standards for students, educators and administrators since technology use became widespread in the 1990s. In 2007, ISTE led a collaborative, international project to update the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). NETS are based around the model that technology is a tool to help enhance learning. To use the technology most efficiently, educators developed voluntary standards for schools to follow, which many states have adopted or modified.

Students
The 2007 NETS for students encompasses several strands to ensure students' ability to use technology in a productive manner. The standards are not designed to enable students to use specific technology; they are designed to be timeless and not constricted by present technology. Standards are divided into the following areas: creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and digital citizenship. Each of these strands includes specific skills that students should master.

Teachers
Nets for teachers provide standards for educators to help students understand how technology can enhance the learning process. Developed in 2008, these standards are meant to provide a framework on which teachers can model and apply NETS for students to improve learning. Following the NETS, teachers need to start with professional growth to model digital-age work and learning, and to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. If teachers do not understand how to use the technology well enough to model, then it will be difficult to implement the rest of the standards. These include facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity through the use of technology and designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments.

Administrators
Administrators are responsible for determining how well technology is being implemented in a school or across the district. With the release of the NETS for Administrators in 2009, the emphasis is on understanding that the goal is about moving forward as members of technologically active communities rather than about staying ahead of the technology race. To that end, administrators should oversee and lead the use of digital-age resources in schools within a digital age learning culture and advocate for funding and policies to implement this culture. In addition, administrators should allow for staff development that will aim towards excellence in professional practice and create a management environment so systemic improvement takes place within the school or district. Modeling and facilitating understanding of social, ethical and legal issues is also necessary for administrators.

Computational Thinking
In 2011, ISTE has gone one step further toward the goal of using technology in learning. A new standard called Computational Thinking (CT) is being developed to help teachers understand and use today's technology as tools to solve problems. According to the Computer Science Thinking Association, "Computational thinking is integrating the power of human thinking with the capabilities of computers, and it is a required skill for 21st-century success." Its essence is to move technology projects more into the realm of using technology for creating information. CT is an ongoing project and raises the bar for technology standards in schools.