This Technology Literacy Assessment Project (TLAP) has two targeted focus areas:
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Development of an 8th Grade Technology and Information Literacy Assessment (to address the development and implementation of methods to ensure that every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes 8th grade, and must address all Technology Standards for Students.)
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Standards Implementation and Support for 21st Century Learning Skills and Effective Use of Available Technology Tools (develop and integrate technology standards into core content standards with innovative methods to improve use of technology and information resources to advance student learning.)
ISTE Standards
The Colorado Department of Education (quoting the International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE]) defines “technology literacy” as “the ability to responsibly use appropriate technology to communicate; solve problems; and access, manage, integrate, evaluate, design, and create information to improve learning in all subject areas and to acquire lifelong knowledge and skills in the 21st century.
CDE-endorsed technology literacy standards (August 2007), which slightly modify the 2007 ISTE-NETS standards, re-orient the conceptualization of technology literacy — declaring that technology is a means rather than an end, and that technology literacy should be understood as a way to support learning and working rather than an isolated accumulation of skills and knowledge.
Accordingly, guiding principles for a common understanding of technology literacy include:
- Emphasis on information and communication skills
- Emphasis on application of tools to learning and productivity outcomes
- Inclusion of “digital citizenship” as a standard (re CDE/ISTE Standard V)
- Connection of technology literacy to student learning and achievement in content areas
- Emphasis on broad tool-use and problem-solving strategies rather than narrow mastery of particular technologies
- Focus on enduring skills, understandings, and dispositions that transcend short- and medium-term technology developments
