Basic Literacy: Technology Literacy
Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts that outlined our tentative approach to 21st century literacy. Drawing from research and frameworks developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, NCREL/Metri Group, and ISTE, we have identified six key literacies for our students:
- Basic Literacy
- Visual/Media Literacy
- Information LIteracy
- Citizenship and Ethical Literacy
- Network Literacy
- Intercultural Literacy
With summer only a few short months away, we are revisiting some of these topics with the intent of crafting a cohesive, spiral approach to literacy in the curriculum that can be implemented this fall. Basic literacy, which includes mastery of core subjects and technology literacy, is our first area of focus.
The U.S. Department of Education defines technology literacy as “computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance.” NCREL/Metri describes this literacy as, “Knowledge about what technology is, how it works, what purposes it can serve, and how it can be used efficiently and effectively.” However it is defined, at a fundamental level, technology literacy implies an understanding of computers:
We’ve drafted seven major sub-categories of technology literacy, each with supporting detail, that we feel define the basic knowledge and skills students should posses by the time they leave the Middle School:
In developing this document, we avoided naming specific applications (tools change frequently but knowledge and skills are more lasting), limited ourselves to what we felt could be reasonably achieved (we are incorporating technology literacy into the content-area classrooms, not teaching “computer skills” in an isolated course), and omitted references to online research and ethical use because we feel they are literacies unto themselves.
As this is a work in progress, we seek and welcome your comments and suggestions for improvement. Once we have refined the framework, our next task is to establish the sequence for introducing, reinforcing, and mastering these concepts. When completed, we will have a program that will help prepare our students for lives as truly literate citizens.
