Technological Literacy & the Curriculum

by John Beynon, Hugh Mackay

This is one in a series of three books published simultaneously in which each addresses the question, "of what should technological literacy consist" The books' view of technological literacy is very different from a narrow skills-based, technical perspective. The authors see the cultural and social as central to the technology curriculum, not marginal. This book and its companions explore the possibilities of a new, expanded, cultural definition of technological literacy, one that can inform national curriculum technology and IT across-the-curriculum. The book sets the scene for three things. Firstly, an overview of the complex debates surrounding IT/Education identifying four different discourses or "voices" although they overlap. Secondly, in the process of exploring these four voices the authors relate them to those in "Understanding Technology". Thirdly, the authors highlight the term Technological Literacy (in Mackay's paper) and the need, in their view, to learn to "read" technology that takes into account social and cultural aspects.

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992