Improving Technological Literacy

Author: A. THOMAS YOUNG, JONATHAN R. COLE, DENICE DENTON

Published: June 10, 2002

The first step is understanding what is meant by “technology.” Then we must try to reach the broadest possible audience.

At the heart of the technological society that characterizes the United States lies an unacknowledged paradox. Although the nation increasingly depends on technology and is adopting new technologies at a breathtaking pace, its citizens are not equipped to make well-considered decisions or to think critically about technology. Adults and children alike have a poor understanding of the essential characteristics of technology, how it influences society, and how people can and do affect its development. Many people are not even fully aware of the technologies they use every day. In short, as a society we are not technologically literate.

Technology has become so user friendly that it is largely invisible. Many people use technology with minimal comprehension of how it works, the implications of its use, or even where it comes from. We drive high-tech cars but know little more than how to operate the steering wheel, gas pedal, and brakes. We fill shopping carts with highly processed foods but are largely ignorant of the composition of those products or how they are developed, produced, packaged, and delivered. We click on a mouse and transmit data over thousands of miles without understanding how this is possible or who might have access to the information. Thus, even as technology has become increasingly important in our lives, it has receded from our view.

To take full advantage of the benefits of technology, as well as to recognize, address, or even avoid some of its pitfalls, we must become better stewards of technological change. Unfortunately, society is ill prepared to meet this goal. And the mismatch is growing. Although our use of technology is increasing apace, there is no sign of a corresponding improvement in our ability to deal with issues relating to technology. Neither the nation’s educational system nor its policymaking apparatus has recognized the importance of technological literacy.

Because few people today have hands-on experience with technology, except as finished consumer goods, technological literacy depends largely on what they learn in the classroom, particularly in elementary and secondary school. However, relatively few educators are involved in setting standards and developing curricula to promote technological literacy. In general, technology is not treated seriously as a subject in any grade, kindergarten through 12th. An exception is the use of computers and the Internet, an area that has been strongly promoted by federal and state governments. But even here, efforts have focused on using these technologies to improve education rather than to teach students about technology. As a result, many K-12 educators identify technology almost exclusively with computers and related devices and so believe, erroneously, that their institutions already teach about technology.

Most policymakers at the federal and state levels also have paid little or no attention to technology education or technological literacy. Excluding legislation focused on the use of computers as educational tools, only a handful of bills introduced in Congress during the past 15 years refer to technology education or technological literacy. Virtually none of these bills have become law, except for measures related to vocational education. Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that legislators or their staffs are any more technologically literate than the general public, despite the fact that Congress and state legislatures often find themselves grappling with policy issues that require an understanding of technology.

It is imperative that this paradox, this disconnect between technological reality and public understanding, be set right. Doing so will require the cooperation of schools of education, schools of engineering, K-12 teachers and teacher organizations, developers of curriculum and instructional materials, federal and state policymakers, industry and nonindustry supporters of educational reform, and science and technology centers and museums.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

In order to improve technological literacy, the most natural and important place to begin is in schools, by providing all students with early and regular contact with technology. Exposing students to technological concepts and hands-on, design-related activities is the most likely way to help them acquire the kinds of knowledge, ways of thinking and acting, and capabilities consistent with technological literacy. However, only 14 states now require some form of technology education for K-12 students, and this instruction usually is affiliated with technician-preparation or school-to-work programs. In 2000, the Massachusetts Board of Education added a combined engineering/technology component to its K-12 curriculum, becoming the first state to explicitly include engineering content. Elsewhere, a few schools offer stand-alone courses at all grade levels, but most school districts pay little or no attention to technology. This is in stark contrast to the situation in some other countries, such as the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom, where technology education courses are required in middle school or high school.

State boards of education can provide incentives for publishers to modify next-generation science, history, social studies, civics, and language arts textbooks to include technology content.

One limiting factor is the small number of teachers trained to teach about technology. There are roughly 40,000 technology education teachers nationwide, mostly at the middle-school or high-school level. By comparison, there are some 1.7 million teachers in grades K-12 who are responsible for teaching science. Another factor is inadequate preparation of other teachers to teach about technology. Schools of education spend virtually no time developing technological literacy in students who will eventually stand in front of the classroom. The integration of technology content into other subject areas, such as science, mathematics, history, social studies, the arts, and language arts, could greatly boost technological literacy. Without teachers trained to carry out this integration, however, technology is likely to remain an afterthought in U.S. education.

Beyond grades K-12, there are additional opportunities for strengthening technological literacy. At two-year community colleges, many courses are intended to prepare students for technical careers. As they learn new skills, these students, with proper instruction, also can develop a better understanding of the underlying technology that could be used as the basis for teaching about the nature, history, and role of technology in our lives. Colleges and universities offer a variety of options for more advanced study of technology. There are about 100 science, technology, and society programs on U.S. campuses that offer both undergraduate and graduate courses; and a number of universities have programs in the history, philosophy, or sociology of technology. Many engineering schools require that students take at least one course in the social impacts of technology. For the adult population already out of school, informal education settings, such as museums and science centers, as well as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and other media, offer avenues for learning about and becoming engaged in a variety of issues related to technology.

A number of specific steps can help strengthen the presence of technology in both formal and informal education. For example, federal and state agencies that help set education policy should encourage the integration of technology content into K-12 standards, curricula, instructional materials, and student assessments (such as end-of-grade tests) in nontechnology subject areas.

At the federal level, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Education can do this in a number of ways, including making integration a requirement when providing funding for the development of curriculum and instructional materials. Technically oriented agencies, such the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health, can support integration by developing accurate and interesting background materials for use by teachers of nontechnical subjects.

At the state level, science and technology advisers and advisory councils, of which there are a growing number, can use their influence with governors, state legislatures, and industry to encourage the inclusion of technology content not only in the general K-12 curriculum but also in school-to-work and technician-preparation programs. State boards of education can provide incentives for publishers to modify next-generation science, history, social studies, civics, and language arts textbooks to include technology content. Such incentives might come from incorporating technological themes into state educational standards or by modifying the criteria for acceptable textbooks.

States also should better align their K-12 standards, curriculum frameworks, and student assessments in the sciences, mathematics, history, social studies, civics, the arts, and language arts with national educational standards that stress the connections between these subjects and technology. Among such guidelines, the International Technology Education Association, a professional organization of technology educators, recently published Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology, a comprehensive statement of what students must learn in order to be technologically literate.

Another crucial need is to improve teacher education. Indeed, the success of changes in curricula, instructional materials, and student assessments will depend largely on the ability of teachers to implement those changes. Lasting improvements will require both the creation of new teaching and assessment tools and the appropriate preparation of teachers to use those tools effectively. Teachers at all levels should be able to conduct design projects and use design-oriented teaching strategies to encourage learning about technology. This means that NSF, the Education Department, and professional organizations that accredit teachers should provide incentives for colleges and universities to transform the preparation of all teachers to better equip them to teach about technology throughout the curriculum. In preparing elementary school teachers, for example, universities should require courses or make other provisions to ensure that would-be teachers are, at the very least, scientifically and technologically literate. Science for All Americans, an educational guidebook produced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, might well serve as a minimum standard of such literacy.

The research base related to technological literacy also must be strengthened. There is a lack of reliable information about what people know and believe about technology, as well as about the cognitive steps that people use in constructing new knowledge about technology. These gaps have made it difficult for curriculum developers to design teaching strategies and for policymakers to enact programs to foster technological literacy. Building this scientific base will require creating cadres of competent researchers, developing and periodically revising a research agenda, and allocating adequate funding for research projects. NSF should support the development of assessment tools that can be used to monitor the state of technological literacy among students and the public, and NSF and the Education Department should fund research on how people learn about technology. The findings must be incorporated into teaching materials and techniques and into formal and informal education settings.

It will be important, as well, to enhance the process by which people make decisions involving technology. One of the best ways for members of the public to become educated about technology is to engage in discussions of the pros and cons, the risks and benefits, and the knowns and unknowns of a particular technology or technological choice. Engagement in decisionmaking is likely to have a direct positive effect on the nonexpert participants, and involving the public in deliberations about technological developments as they are taking shape, rather than after the fact, may actually shorten the time and reduce the resources required to bring new technologies into service. Equally important, public participation may result in design changes that better reflect the needs and desires of society.

Industry, federal agencies responsible for carrying out infrastructure projects, and science and technology museums should provide more opportunities for the nontechnical public to become involved in discussions about technological developments. The technical community, especially engineers and scientists, is largely responsible for the amount and quality of communication and outreach to the public on technological issues. Industry should err on the side of encouraging greater public engagement, even if it may not always be clear what types of technological development merit public input. In the federal arena, some agencies already require recipients of funding to engage communities likely to be affected by planned infrastructure projects. These efforts should be expanded. The informal education sector, especially museums and science and technology centers, is well positioned to prepare members of the public to grapple with the complexities of decisionmaking in the technological realm. These institutions and the government agencies, companies, and foundations that support them could do much more to encourage public discussion and debate about the direction and nature of technological development at both the local and national level.

If informed decisionmaking is important for all citizens, then it is vital for leaders in government and industry whose decisions influence the health and welfare of the nation. With both sectors facing a daunting array of issues with substantial technological components, there is a great unmet need for accurate and timely technical information and education. Thus, federal and state agencies with a role in guiding or supporting the nation’s scientific and technological enterprise, along with private foundations concerned about good governance, should support education programs intended to increase the technological literacy of government officials (including key staff members) and industry leaders. Executive education programs could be offered in many locations, including major research universities, community colleges, law schools, business schools, schools of management, and colleges of engineering. The engineering community, which is directly involved in the creation of technology, is ideally suited to promote such programs. An engineering-led effort to increase technological literacy could have significant long-term payoffs, not only for decisionmakers but also for the public at large

Source: https://issues.org/young/

Comment: This article talks about the importance of creating a more innovative way to be able to teach literacy in a way where these issues will not be as prominent. It says that it needs to begin in education and start with engagement of those from all levels into the decision-making process. This would allow students to become familiar enough with the process in terms of being able to create with science and technology rather than regurgitate the information.