State of the “Tech Connect” Address: Part 4- Technology Literacy

What is technology literacy and fluency?

From the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Washington:

Technology literacy is the ability to responsibly, creatively, and effectively use appropriate technology to:

• communicate;
• access, collect, manage, integrate, and evaluate information;
• solve problems and create solutions;
• build and share knowledge; and
• improve and enhance learning in all subject areas and experiences.

Technology fluency builds upon technology literacy and is demonstrated when students:

• apply technology to real-world experiences;
• adapt to changing technologies;
• modify current and create new technologies; and
• personalize technology to meet personal needs, interests, and learning styles.

I really like the differentiation between literacy and fluency, because of the connection to languages. You might be able to communicate in a language, but that does not make you fluent.

I continue to be amazed at the wide range of technology literacy and fluency among our students AND teachers. There does not seem to be a any predictability in who is tech savy, tech literate and tech fluent and who is not. Some are comfortable as can be exploring and not afraid of anything new, while with others one can almost smell the fear. This transcends all age groups, gender and financial background.

Students:

You can tell immediately the difference among the students (4 year -12 year olds). Just the way they walk up and sit down in front of our desktops in Tech Connect.

• There are the ones that will sit down and immediately go to work, while others already have the panicky look “I need help” on their faces.
• After giving an initial overview on what we are going to explore today, there are the ones that are already LOST, because they have never started a program on their own.
• There are the ones whose cursor will zoom across the screen following my every instruction, while others are still having trouble double clicking an icon.
• There are the ones who are learning at lightning speed shortcuts to copy, paste, insert, save, select, open and rename, while others are still navigating blindly, overwriting other students’ work or losing their documents in the vast universe of folders.
• There are the ones who will tell stories about the online games, websites, youTube, and google searches they have worked with and looked at, while others don’t know how to type in a URL.
• There are the ones who are delving into creating a creative outlet for their voice while others are stuck on basic formatting issues.

Teachers:

The teachers, who I consider my students as well, are not that different than the younger students. The assumption that the ones, just out of college, are the digital natives and technology fluent is not valid. Predictions which grade level (lower/upper school) would take more advantages of the professional development opportunities are off. Taking in consideration the length of years someone has been teaching seems also not a good indicator who will and who will not take initiative of using technology for personal enjoyment, professional productivity and in the end in their classrooms.

What is it then? What variable is to be considered and analyzed to measure the differences in technology literacy and fluency among students and teachers? Is is personality, time management skills, opportunity, encouragement, self-motivation…?