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First-Year Engineering Programs and Technological Literacy

I. Abstract

The importance of technological literacy is briefly reviewed. The remainder of the paper focuses on the promotion of technological literacy through connections with first-year engineering programs: involvement of engineering faculty and students in K-12 classrooms, the involvement of engineering faculty and graduate students in K-12 teacher preparation, and engineering faculty involvement in improving the technological literacy of college students.

II. Technological literacy and why the engineering profession is concerned about it

Technological literacy is the ability to use, manage, assess, and understand technological systems,1 requiring both knowledge and skills.2,3 Technological literacy could be used as a common theme to make connections among school subjects.4 The National Academy of Engineering report Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More about Technology argues American adults and children have a poor understanding of the basic characteristics of technology, how it influences society, and how people can and do affect its development.5 Educators and policy-makers in the United States have been slow to acknowledge the importance of technological literacy. The general public, however, believes that development of technological literacy is important. The Gallup Organization, commissioned by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA), determined that:6 1. The American public is virtually unanimous in regarding the development of technological literacy as an important goal for people at all levels. 2. Many Americans view technology narrowly as mostly being computers and the Internet. 3. Near total consensus exists in the public sampled that schools should include the study of technology in the curriculum.

Technology education is weak at the elementary level and generally offered only as a specialization in secondary education. Change in the status quo will be slow because of a shortfall of qualified technology teachers and technology teacher education programs.7 The National Science Board charged the United States government “to attract and retain an adequate cadre of well-qualified pre-college teachers of mathematics, science, and technology.” The report’s recommendations include:8 • To make pre-college teaching more competitive with other career opportunities, resources must be provided to support programs in teacher preparation at institutions that succeed in integrating faculty and curricula of schools of engineering and science with schools of education; and • To improve effectiveness of pre-college teaching, stakeholders must collaborate to support outreach efforts to K-12 by science and engineering professionals to motivate high quality curricular standards and expand content knowledge for classroom teachers and support research on learning that better informs K-12 mathematics and science curricula and pedagogy development.

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Ohland, M. (2006, June), First Year Engineering Programs And Technological Literacy Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--748