Technology Literacy Background
In January 2003, in response to the No Child Left Behind Act, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Information & Technology Services (ITS) eLearning began developing a comprehensive approach to ensuring that all students become technology literate by the end of eighth grade. The project originally included a summative multiple choice assessment of technology literacy for eighth grade students and a series of curriculum enhancements with performance assessments for seventh and eighth grade students.
The second generation of the CPS summative assessment was developed for students in sixth through eighth grades to provide more data about the development of technology literacy in the middle grades, starting in sixth grade.
All CPS assessments and curriculum enhancements are based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S) and have been validated by an expert panel of International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) leaders.
ITS eLearning partnered with Learning Point Associates to facilitate the development of the following programs:
- Technology Literacy Assessment: A validated summative assessment of technology literacy for sixth through eighth grade students
- Technology Literacy Projects: A companion series of project-based curriculum enhancements on CD-ROM for seventh and eighth grade students
More information about the assessment work can be found in the ISTE publication, National Education Technology Standards for Students: Resources for Student Assessment (Kelly & Haber, 2005, chap. 13).
In December 2005, Intel® Education partnered with CPS to collaborate on the following components of ITS eLearning’s technology literacy program:
- Technology Literacy Course: A Web-based curriculum of sixth through eighth grade technology literacy projects for students
- Teacher Guide: A resource designed to help teachers integrate technology into the core curriculum and facilitate technology literacy projects
- Parent Guide: A resource provided for parents to help them encourage their children to use technology for learning
ITS eLearning and Intel® Education collaborated with the Institute of Computer Technology and Digital Education Architects to help extend the technology literacy projects for sixth through eighth grade students, optimize the projects for Web-based delivery, develop guides for teachers and parents to accompany each project, and make the technology literacy projects a free resource available to a global audience, available in September 2007.
To learn more about ITS eLearning’s technology literacy projects and obtain the technology literacy assessment for your students, visit ITS eLearning's NETS Projects.
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