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Our Comic Strip explains why we do what we do
(Open PDF version for
printing)
Life forms on the earth about 3.4 billion
years ago. |
Complexity develops, and so does
intelligence. |
Tools offered survival advantage, so we used
them (and showed our children how to use them). |
Those adept at using tools flourished, and
developed newer and better technology. |
Technology lets us make better technology
faster and faster.
It changes how we live. |
It is part of our educational, career, political, and economic choices. |
It changes us
(this started back when humans good with tools had a better shot at
procreating) |
and it can exterminate us |
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I don’t know who discovered water, but it
was not a fish
— Marshall McLuhan
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And, sure enough,
surrounded by technology,
humans rarely "discover" it. |
Instead, we assume that
technology = computers
&
understanding = operating
(this is so wrong) |
Operating computers is an important
vocational skill, but it is not the technological literacy that
enables us to make informed choices. |
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Technological literacy is critical thinking. It is looking beyond
the trees to see the forest
(or beyond the fish bowl to see the water) |
It is asking questions such as,
"What are the costs and benefits?" or
"How do we evaluate this?" |
More information = less privacy
More control = less freedom
(for example)
It is finding patterns that will be true for tomorrow's technology. |
Technological literacy empowers a society to
understand and evaluate technology so it can create an intentional
future. |
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Out of concern that society makes choices, big and small, blind to the
underlying technology, KnowledgeContext formed to teach how to think
about technology.
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How do humans understand and evaluate anything? Our pedagogy
and psychology experts gave us the structure of nine essential
questions. |
What patterns in technology do not change with time? Our history
and technology experts gave us patterns with stories to illustrate. |
All this went into a classroom curriculum we call ICE-9 because it is
based on 9 questions about the Identity, Change,
and Evaluation of technology. |
Technological literacy is what our
curriculum
gives to young people
(and our
book gives
to teachers, parents, and other adults)
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E
Evaluation
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8. What are its costs
& benefits? |
9. How do we evaluate
it? |
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C
Change
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5. How does it change? |
6. How does it change
us? |
7. How do we change it? |
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I
Identity |
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1. What is it? |
2. Why do we use it? |
3. Where does it come
from? |
4. How does it work? |
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View this comic strip in a
PDF version for printing
on two pages
(View PDF files with Adobe's
free Acrobat reader.) |
