Tech Tally Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (2006) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Defining Technological Literacy
2 Defining Technological Literacy
Pages 29-40
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 29... ...
In short, technology is everything that humans do or make to change the natural environment to suit their own purposes. Or, in the words of Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology, technology is "the innovation, change, or modification of the natural environment in order to satisfy perceived human wants and needs" (ITEA, 2000, p.
|
From page 30... ...
The natural world consists of plants and animals, rocks and minerals, rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, the soil beneath our feet, and the air we breathe -- in short, everything that exists without human intervention or invention. The social world includes customs, cultures, political systems, legal systems, economies, religions, and the mores humans devise to govern their interactions and relationships.
|
From page 31... ...
know-how, and other expertise necessary to make technologies work; and so on. Thus, technology can be thought of as a general process by which humans modify the natural world to suit their needs, and the designed world consists of the artifacts created through this process.
|
From page 32... ...
Katrina's storm surge disrupted the Port of New Orleans, and floodwaters blocked the main roads and rail lines into the shipyards, effectively closing one of the main export routes for American agricultural products. (Agriculture is also largely dependent on technology, from mechanized farm machinery and global positioning satellites to pesticides and chemical fertilizers.)
|
From page 33... ...
The committee renamed the ways of thinking and acting dimension as "critical thinking and decision making," which more clearly describes this important aspect of technological literacy. The change also eliminates the possible suggestion that people must have specific positions on complex or controversial issues, which was clearly not the intent of the authors of Technically Speaking.
|
From page 34... ...
According to this description, the knowledge dimension of tech nological literacy includes both factual knowledge and conceptual under standing. A technologically literate person must understand the basic nature of technology, such as that technology shapes, but is also shaped by society, and should understand fundamental concepts, such as trade-offs and the balance between costs and benefits.
|
From page 35... ...
Contemporary skills, comparable to technological capabilities, suggest what an individual can do with computer technology; foundational concepts, parallel to technological knowledge, suggest basic ideas about computers and their development; and intellectual capabilities, akin to critical thinking and decision making, suggest the application of information technology in complex situations and the ability to handle unintended and unexpected problems when they arise. BOX 2-3 Distinguishing Technological Literacy from Technical Competence Technological literacy is not the same as technical competence.
|
From page 36... ...
The Inter national Technology Education Association's Standards for Technological Literacy offers specific suggestions of what K12 students should know and what they should be able to do with respect to technology. In addi tion, two sets of national science education standards (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996)
|
From page 37... ...
In a graph developed in Technically Speaking, each of the dimensions of technological literacy is represented as a separate axis (Figure 2-1)
|
From page 38... ...
Conversely, the doing component of techno logical literacy invariably leads to a new understanding of certain aspects of the technological world. This complex, but more accurate, idea can be represented in a number of ways.
|
From page 39... ...
knowledge Assessing technological knowledge requires different methods than as requires different sessing technological capabilities, which, in turn, is likely to require differ methods than ent approaches from those used to assess ways of critical thinking and assessing decision making. technological Finally, we must take into account that technological literacy capabilities.
|
From page 40... ...
1999. Being Fluent with Information Technology.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.