Bringing Technology Education Into K-8 Classrooms: A Guide to Curricular Resources About the Designed World

Author: Britton, E., De Long-Cotty, B., Levenson, T.
Publisher: Corwin Press
Publication Date: 2005
Publication City: Thousand Oaks
Publication State: CA
Available for purchase online at: http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/766

Abstract (written by WestEd)

For the last 15 years, leading science education organizations have urged science educators to address technology education. More recently, the No Child Left Behind Act has mandated that technological literacy be a goal of every K–12 classroom. Increasingly, schools are taking up this call. In some schools, designated technology teachers meet this charge. In other schools, it falls on the classroom or science teacher to fill the role.

But until now, no teachers have had a comprehensive resource to help them evaluate the classroom and teacher materials they could draw on. Bringing Technology Education into K–8 Classrooms looks at 25 elementary and middle school products — products that can shape a lesson on oil spills or a two-semester course on the designed world. In-depth reviews evaluate products that can be used as “core,” cross-curricular, or supplemental materials. These are carefully analyzed against the Standards for Technological Literacy developed by the International Technology Education Association.

Additionally, an extensive annotated bibliography alerts teachers to more than 100 readily available books, magazines, activity resources, and Web sites that can make technology education richer, more manageable, and more enjoyable for teachers and students alike.

Written by a team of highly accomplished science and technology researchers and curriculum designers, this resource has an easy to follow organization and includes a wide range of useful information:

• complete information for choosing technology resources that meet district and classroom needs;
• practical analysis of how technology topics address standards and can be integrated into lesson plans across the curriculum;
• discussion of technological literacy and its importance for students;
• reviews of the supports the resources offer to help teachers teach their students about technology, including support for assessment, understanding technology content, promoting collaboration skills, and pedagogical guidance;
• helpful tips on how technology activities help students understand their world; and
• sample pages from all core and cross-curricular materials.

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Ted Britton, Associate Director of WestEd's National Center for Improving Science Education (NCISE) says, "Over a dozen or so other countries have formally set technology education as a school subject, separate from other subjects such as science or mathematics. We explain that while technology education addresses computers and the like, it spans a much wider range of concepts. Technology education emphasizes the design process used in developing any technology in systems such as construction, transportation, and bioengineering."