Educational Technical Standards 101 – Why Are They So Complicated?

WASHINGTON - Nov. 16, 2016 - PRLog -- During this period, numerous organizations and marketplace providers have attempted to detail the commonalities and differences between the standards communities and their blueprints – some of these papers in great detail. To address this, the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is proud to release the simplified 'Educational Technical Standards 101'.

The A4L Community, previously the SIF Association, has changed its brand name due to the fact that the majority of its 3,000 members represent schools, regional agencies, and government entities now wear more than just "data manager" job titles.  These practitioners are being asked to oversee IT, data access, policy development (for example, privacy), educational technology and even additional operational roles including communications.  These A4L Members drove the change in brand to indicate the Community's broadening mission – Access 4 Learning.

The A4L Community continues to mature the SIF Specification and Certification Program but members are being asked for functionality beyond just SIF Specifications.  The A4L Board has committed to helping the marketplace develop solutions based on standards – no matter where they originate!  There are already examples of the Community using specifications from other standards development organizations to be used in tandem with the SIF Specifications with powerful results.

Questions continue to come to the Community relating to "which standard do I use for what functionality?" and/or "don't all the standards do the same thing?"  To address this, the A4L Community is proud to release Educational Technical Standards 101.  This quick and concise overview of standards and the organizations that develop them, can be accessed numerous ways:

Educational Standards 101 White Paper: https://www.a4l.org/NewsRoom/White%20Papers/Educational_Technical_Standards_101.pdf

Education Standards 101 Slide Deck: https://www.a4l.org/Resources/Decision-Maker-Resources/Documents/Educational%20Technical%20Standards%20101.pdf

Educational Standards 101 video animation: https://youtu.be/62GhPiBF090



"Standards work is very difficult", touts Alex Jackl, CEO and President of Bardic Systems Inc. and A4L's North American Technical Board Co-Lead.  "It involves bring together people from sometimes radically different viewpoints and getting them to agree on things.  Last year's transformation of the SIF Association to the Access 4 Learning Community was a move to embrace the ever-shifting landscape of education technology and standards and provide a clearinghouse that makes sense to all the stakeholders."

About the Access 4 Learning Community

There is no other global community made up of educational policymakers, marketplace product and service providers and the customers they serve, collaborating daily to address real word learning information and resource issues.

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning.  The A4L Community is "Powered by SIF" Specifications as its major technical tool to allow for this management and access simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The Access 4 Learning Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit http://www.A4L.org