Education Week's Digital Directions: Tech Literacy Confusion - The Diigo Meta page

• 17 Nov 09
  

  Leslie Doukas

  Pedagogy group

• 10 Nov 09
  

  Maureen Tumenas

  technology_literacy digitalliteracy techliteracy

• 09 Nov 09
  

  Sharon Elin
  • "What has struck me from the get-go, as a technology-literacy teacher, is it's so nebulous," says Carole L. Colburn, who teaches at Highlander Way Middle School in Howell, Mich. "There is no definition of what really makes a student technology-literate, or technologically literate."
• 10 Oct 09
  

  Ann Darling

  Rebecca W. Black, an education professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Constance Steinkuehler, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the newly published Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research.

  technology_literacy research

  • skills."

    
    

    Not content to express themselves in text, young people now use other resources for "making meaning online, including image, sound, color, space, avatars, video, and movement," writes Rebecca W. Black, an education professor at the University of California, Irvine, and Constance Steinkuehler, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the newly published Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research.

  • rs justifies adding
  • 15 more annotations...

  • • measuring it.

      
      
      
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      How would you define tech literacy? Tell us in DD's forum.

      
      

      
      

      
      

      "What has struck me from the get-go, as a technology-literacy teacher, is it's so nebulous," says Carole L. Colburn, who teaches at Highlander Way Middle School in Howell, Mich. "There is no definition of what really makes a student technology-literate, or technologically literate."

    • nt efforts to promote technology literacy culminated at the federal level in a national goal, adopted seven years ago in the No Child Left Behind Act, that all students be technology-literate by 8th grade. The federal law left it to states, however, to define the concept and persuade schools to teach it.

    • State and school district efforts generally draw heavily on standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE, as well as more recent curriculum frameworks released by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an education and industry coalition. In November, for example, the partnership and the National Council of Teachers of English published a framework that models how 21st-century skills can be infused into English classes.

      
      

      A few curriculum and testing companies have responded to market demand for technology-literacy products.

      
      

      The Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service created the iSkills Assessment, a test to measure critical thinking and problem-solving in a digital environment. Although it is designed for college freshmen, the test has been used in some high schools.

      
      

      And Learning.com, a company based in Portland, Ore., sells a technology-literacy curriculum for K-8 students, to help them apply technology skills in math, language arts, social studies, and science. The company also offers a technology-proficiency assessment, adopted by Texas for a two-year pilot program ending in December 2009 and involving about 7,200 students.

    • four different methods of reporting the percentage of students who are technologically literate by the 8th grade, according to Colburn. A district may report the percentage of students who pass an assessment; who demonstrate technology literacy by creating an electronic portfolio; who have successfully completed a class in technology literacy; or whom teachers simply have observed as meeting criteria for being technologically literate.

    • n December, the steering and planning committees appointed by the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, were scheduled to meet in Washington to start creating a framework for the new evaluation, to be added to the federally sponsored assessment on a pilot basis in 2012.

      
      

      The test will be "totally computer-based," says Steven A. Schneider, an official at WestEd, a nonprofit research and policy firm, located in Redwood City, Calif., which was awarded the contract to develop the framework and the specifications for the test.

    • tudents' ability to compete in a global marketplace and to keep pace with quickly evolving technology.

    • Schneider says that although the test framework will provide a clear statement of what technological literacy entails, those twin goals may also be sources of tension.

      
      

      The framework is apt to be biased toward technology skills practical to assess on NAEP, which would downplay long-term science activities, for example.

    • but I really don't think it's necessary," says Donald G. Knezek, the chief executive officer of the Washington-based ISTE, which recently released the second edition of its widely used National Educational Technology Standards for students.
    • "loaded with engineering types," as well as a representative from the International Technology Education Association, which has developed curricula and activities around STEM and design. "Their definition of technological literacy is much more industrial and career-oriented," he says. "Our definition is much more ICT—information and communication and learning technologies."

    • Kathleen Tyner, the author of Literacy in a Digital World.

      
      

      "There is sort of a turf war, so people can support their fields—library science, educational technology, and so on. You can see various aims and purposes. That's why their definitions overlap," says Tyner, a professor in the radio, television, and film program at the University of Texas at Austin.

    • By definition, literacy skills are those that everyone should have for civic participation; they should be skills within reach of just about everyone and be useful for a lifetime, Tyner says.
    • n the book, "Technically Speaking ," the national academies of engineering describe the need to expand the consideration of technology far beyond what is presented in this article.
    • uspect that well scripted works like this will continue to be more prevalent as a major issue is really about the profits of the next generation of IT equipment hits the market from IT manufacturers and retailers.
    • echnology education as defined by the National Standards for Technological Literacy, authored by the International Technology Education Association, is the defining authority on the study of technology as a subject to be studied in schools.
    • This is a David and Goliath situation with billion dollar industries lining up to make incredible profits from the education community pitted against dedicated educators whose primary objective is to prepare students to be knowledgeable citizens about all aspects of technology.
• 29 Apr 09
  

  Jason Stone

  what are we aiming at when we want 'tech literacy'? the comments at bottom are interesting

  TechPlan techliteracy

• 28 Apr 09
  

  Noelle Kreider

  debate over definition of tech literacy

  techliteracy literacy

  • Many educators, even those who agree technology literacy is important, are confused by the phrase's competing meanings and the diverse ways of measuring it.
  • State and school district efforts generally draw heavily on standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE, as well as more recent curriculum frameworks released by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an education and industry coalition.
  • 4 more annotations...
  • • International Technology Education Association, which has developed curricula and activities around STEM and design. "Their definition of technological literacy is much more industrial and career-oriented,
    • Our definition is much more ICT—information and communication and learning technologies."
    • Kathleen Tyner, the author of Literacy in a Digital World.
    • By definition, literacy skills are those that everyone should have for civic participation; they should be skills within reach of just about everyone and be useful for a lifetime, Tyner says.
• 

  Barbara Moose

  A growing chorus of experts say schools should teach students to be proficient in "technology literacy"—but the definition of it is ambiguous.

  literacy curriculum education techliteracy

• 24 Apr 09
  

  Tammie Ciccarelli

  TF3.4 technology_literacy

• 21 Apr 09
  

  Phil Taylor

  literacy curriculum education techliteracy

  • I think the solution is conceptually simple. (As always, the devil is in the details).
    
    You teach students the basic tools for thinking: Inquiry, analysis, 'what-if?', simulation, dialog, testing hypotheses, skepticism, analysis of motives, statistics, reasoning, the difference between primary sources, organization of information, presentation skills, rhetoric.
    
    About the only items that are newly available are simulation as a generally-available tool, and access to a wide variety of information: primary sources, secondary sources, opinions, rants, and uninformed twaddle.
    
    Teach them the tools to work with information. How to analyze, filter, question, test, and finally, communicate.
  • But teach them to think ABOUT online communities, to ANALYZE those communities, to EVALUATE the information, statements, claims and rhetoric, and to how to be active in SHAPING those communities, how to be a LEADER, how to be an ORGANIZER, how to be a TEAM MEMBER -- well, those skills are timeless and will translate well into any community.
• 

  Steve Ransom

  literacy informationliteracy digitalliteracy informationfluency

• 

  Diane Meyer

  A growing chorus of experts say schools should teach students to be proficient in "technology literacy"—but the definition of it is ambiguous.

• 

  Tim Sparacino

  techliteracy technologyskills technologyassessment technologystandards administration literacy literacycoaching

  • Teaching literacy—reading and writing—is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."
  • Government efforts to promote technology literacy culminated at the federal level in a national goal, adopted seven years ago in the No Child Left Behind Act, that all students be technology-literate by 8th grade. The federal law left it to states, however, to define the concept and persuade schools to teach it.
• 

  Erin Wallace

  Tech literacy: What should be measured?

  literacy education

• 

  John Evans

  technology literacy education curriculum techliteracy

  • Teaching literacy—reading and writing—is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."
• 20 Apr 09
  

  Dan Robinson

  Digital Directions - the comments related to this article are the most insightful.

  curriculum literacy

• 12 Apr 09
  

  Honor Moorman

  TechArticles

• 19 Mar 09
  

  Alise Brann

  literacy education curriculum tech_literacy

• 02 Mar 09
  

  Michelle Krill

  A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."

  literacy techliteracy digliteracy techplan curriculum nclb assessment

  • By definition, literacy skills are those that everyone should have for civic participation; they should be skills within reach of just about everyone and be useful for a lifetime, Tyner says. By this view, including too many specific technical skills, high-level cognitive skills, and specialized workforce skills—even if valuable—would only make technology literacy more difficult to promote and achieve.
• 09 Feb 09
  

  marsye kaplan

  21st

• 08 Feb 09
  

  Stacey Snyder

  This reminds me of the reality in which adults fail to recognize the potential for new technologies to help engage our students.

  digitalliteracy for:lwict2009 literacy medialiteracy technology

• 06 Feb 09
  

  Emily Vickery

  21stcenturylearning curriculum

• 05 Feb 09
  

  Anne Bubnic

  Teaching literacy—reading and writing—is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."

  ad4dcss digital citizenship digital literacy

• 

  Suzanne Zellmann

  CEDU525

• 04 Feb 09
  

  Phil Macoun

  for:kneiszlee education digitalliteracy literacy medialiteracy

• 

  Jonathan Decker

  education tech technology iste literacy youth

• 

  Cameron McKinley

  ECOMP_7104_research_online

• 

  Jenny Gridley

  09-10trc assessment education technology

• 

  ccolpoys

  articles

• 02 Feb 09
  

  Sue G

  technology_literacy

  • Government efforts to promote technology literacy culminated at the federal level in a national goal, adopted seven years ago in the No Child Left Behind Act, that all students be technology-literate by 8th grade. The federal law left it to states, however, to define the concept and persuade schools to teach it.
  • In November, for example, the partnership and the National Council of Teachers of English published a framework that models how 21st-century skills can be infused into English classes.

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