Thursday, July 31, 2014

Update 31 July 2014 - Literacy in Technology



Hi there and welcome to week two of term already.  I have just had a walk around my garden and there are a number of spring flowers out showing the promise of the next season.  Where are you at with your Teaching as Inquiry? Is your inquiry blooming, do you need to dig a little deeper with your current inquiry or do you need to completely begin anew?  I was challenged again by Brian Annan, listening to his session out of Future Learning Environments Live Streamed by eTV and  will be recorded for rewindable learning.  I will follow up with the link to these when they are available.
How are we identifying the needs of our learners and empowering them to grow and change?

This week we are focusing on Literacy in Technology.

Christina Smith (Technology Online Content Editor) and Wendy Webb (Technology Online Facilitator) share an insight into this curriculum area.

What is technological literacy?

The landing page for the Technology in the NZC section of the site has a brief definition of technological literacy. What is technology in the NZC  has a diagram of the parts of the technology learning area, which may also be useful.
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What is literacy in technology?

Technological literacy includes all of the skills and knowledge that are developed through learning in technology.

“A technologically literate person understands, in increasingly sophisticated ways that evolve over time, what technology is, how it is created and how it shapes society and in turn is shaped by society. He or she will be able to hear a story about technology on television or read it in the newspaper and evaluate the information in the story intelligently, put that information in context, and form an opinion based on that information. A technologically literate person will be comfortable with and objective about technology, being neither scared of it nor infuriated with it” – ITEA Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the study of technology (Third Edition), p. 9-10
“Technological literacy is more than being aware of technology and it is even more than knowing how to use a set of technologies. Technological literacy is a recognition that the tools we find and create in our environment are extensions of ourselves. They are both mental and physical prostheses that dramatically increase our range of behaviour. Becoming technologically literate involves actively being aware of technology, knowing how we may use it, knowing how it works and knowing how it changes us.” David Moore

Whereas literacy in technology consists more specifically of the types of reading, writing, speaking, and listening that happens/is needed within the learning area, including the vocabulary.

Literacy in technology is required for:
  • Expressing views and understandings;
  • Understanding of written evidence;
  • Planning of a technological outcome including a range of project management skills eg materials, timeframes,
  • Developing the vocabulary of the technology curriculum;
  • Reading and writing about conceptual understandings;
  • Presenting a technology outcome often requires argument skills, for example giving a rationale for decisions;
  • Evaluating a product design in written or oral form;
  • Evaluating, describing, contrasting and comparing against criteria.
  • Understanding diagrams eg: Creating a shade house

How do we develop and nurture literacy in technology?
  • Always looking for incidental as well as planned opportunities for introducing technology understandings: news time and reading time can also be technology time;
  • School-wide planning;
  • Effective teaching strategies for making links between technology and learning in other areas.

What resources support literacy in technology?


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Other useful resources on Technology Online:




Examples of the power of  literacy in the technology curriculum.

A huge thank you to Christina Smith and Wendy Webb for this week’s update.




Anne’s Literacy Links and Look ups…

Ngā mihi nui
Anne Kenneally
Literacy Online Facilitator
CORE Education
@LiteracyOnline2

To post to the list email: literacy@lists.tki.org.nz

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