<p>Technological Literacy Courses in Pre-Service Teacher Education</p>

Abstract

We live in a technological age and the impacts of technology on the individual, society, and environment are great. Technology is the study of the human quest for solutions to problems involving the design and production of artifacts, systems, and environments. Society needs professionals who understand technological forces and are prepared to help people manage those forces. Students in either the technology education (technology and pre-engineering education) or Mathematics/Science/Technology-M/S/T (NJDOE approved academic major for education) major study a variety of themes including historical and contemporary influence of designed objects on end users and society, design style, product development, human factors engineering, product modeling, problem-solving techniques, communication, computers, and robotics. Emphasis is placed on understanding and applying core technological/pre-engineering/ mathematical/and scientific principles to develop design and problem-solving skills. Courses are conducted in modern classroom/laboratories housed in the School of Engineering. "Technology Education" is a broad term used in the United States to describe a curriculum that addresses the need to educate students about the many ways that technology affects their lives. At The College of New Jersey's School of Engineering, this area of certification has been redesigned to include K-12 technological and preengineering principles. The goal of the program is to prepare teachers who can explain to students how objects that they interact with on a daily basis have been conceived of, designed, and fabricated by another person or group of people-an engineer, architect, graphic/fashion or industrial designer. These objects run the gamut from the design of the package that contains their cereal to the fabrication and fashion design of their clothing, to the water supply system that allows them to wash in the morning, to the myriad of engineering advances that allow them to play MP3s on their PC and instant message friends from their mobile phones while sitting comfortably in their climate-controlled houses. New "Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology" were published in 2000. The National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and most recently the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) have recognized technology education/pre-engineering as a new field of study and as an important element of school reform. Continuing its commitment to providing New Jersey's children with an education that enables them to succeed in the new economy, the New Jersey Department of Education established a new Core Content Standard #8 for "Technological Literacy." Students in the Department of Technological Studies with a teacher-education specialty in either Technology Education or M/S/T receive provisional certification to teach in New Jersey schools. Most states recognize teacher candidates from these NCATE nationally accredited program. Students graduating from the pro...

Abridged International Perspectives of Technology Education and Its Connection to STEM Education

“…However, schools still have to meet the requirements of standardised testing which may not assess the skills developed through innovatory approaches. In negotiating these and other competing demands, teacher knowledge is crucial, and universities should develop teacher education programmes that ensure all teachers are technologically literate (Skophammer & Reed, 2014;Voogt & McKenney, 2017). School districts should also provide in-service training to ensure all teachers possess media and technology literacies and skills, particularly if inter-and transdisciplinary approaches are to be encouraged (see Herro & Quigley, 2017).…”

Initial teacher education students’ conceptions of creativity in technology and science education: A large-scale New Zealand study

“…Thus, Technology is design centred and constructive, whereas Science is analytic. A sound understanding of Technology and its distinction enables the establishment of clear goals, classroom activities and authentic contexts (Brown & Brown, 2010) which leads to the development of technological literacy (Lewis, 1995;Skophammer & Reed, 2014), the ability to appropriately select and responsibly use technology. Much of the recent research in New Zealand also supports this notion.…”

Embracing failure in a first-year technology course

“…Teacher education programs have increasingly come to recognize the necessity of addressing educational technologies. As a consequence, technology literacy courses have become integral to teacher preparation programs (Graham et al, 2004;Skophammer & Reed, 2014). Most preservice educational technology courses teach future teachers how to use current technologies with the hope that they will be able to apply what they learned directly to their future teaching (Hasse, 2017;Instefjord & Munthe, 2016).…”