My views of the “technologically literate” individual have been emerging over the last few years due to generative AI. My views reinforce much that I have always believed about being a user of technology, but it is also bringing a fresh perspective on this aspect of modern life. The three most important are:
- A renewed interest in understanding what we intend to do as users of technology. In schools, this comes from a renewed interest in understanding the intent of our actions, how technology fits into our intent, and how technology affects our cognition.
- An emerging understanding of data and privacy. Our students must leave school knowing about some of the potential threats to our privacy and safety that exist today that did not exist a few years ago.
- Students should not be flummoxed by changes in how systems appear or operate, and this happens only when they have experience with different devices and systems.
When students leave with the ability to understand intent, protect their privacy, and purposefully select devices, they will be literate.
We promote technology literacy in several ways. Again, I enumerate some of the most important in my experience:
- Collaborate as a professional community. Educational technology must meet the needs of students and teachers; it must be properly configured, and it must be reasonably implemented. This requires educators, IT professionals, and school leaders to work together to create what they cannot create alone.
- Model the literacy we want our students to develop.
- Adopt design as a principle and as an ethical act. Technology is evolving so rapidly; we must constantly challenge ourselves and the assumptions that ground our decisions. The circumstances that determined what was reasonable even a few months ago may not be, and we must be prepared to recognize that, change our decisions, and completely explain our rationale.