CMK faculty member Sylvia Martinez, President of Generation YES, commissioned a study by Dr. Jon Becker and colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University. The study, Assessing Technology Literacy: The Case for an Authentic, Project-Based Learning Approach (PDF) is an important contribution to the field and should be read widely.
From Sylvia’s blog…
This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of “doing” as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level.
Where “doing” is central to students gaining technological literacy, traditional assessments will not work; technological literacy must be assessed in ways that are more authentic.
Building on this definition, the whitepaper connects project-based learning and constructivism, which both hold “doing” as central to learning, as the only authentic way to assess technology literacy.
True project-based assessment is the only way to properly assess technological literacy.
The whitepaper is free and covered by a Creative Commons license, so please share it with all of your colleagues!
