Use Information and Communications Technology - Reflections on How Adults Use This EFF Skill

"New communications technology has drawn citizens of all societies into closer proximity with each other. Through satellite and cable technology, many of us are regularly in contact with people in countries other than our own. Wars in distant lands...impact on both our economic and our personal relations. To be a valuable member of our society a person not only has to become aware of the role the United States plays on the world stage...but also has to assess the impact of modern technologies on those roles."¹⁸
-Joan Burstyn

Insights From Field Research:
Using the Standard to Guide Teaching and Learning

Anson Green
Northwest Vista College, San Antonio, TX
Employment preparation, ASE; In-class and workplace activity.
Teacher data from the third round of field review, 1999.
(Adapted from Equipped for the Future Content Standards, p. 54.)

• Students will see technology as a viable alternative to gather information or create, manage, and store information meaningful to their life or needs for work.
  
• Students will choose the technological tool/soft-ware appropriate for the task. They will choose multiple tools for tasks and choose which one performs the needed feature; realize the limitation of tools/software, and seek to use appropriate tools/software that picks up where one leaves off (multi-tasking); and understand problems of compatibility and will learn to control and work through them.
• Students will perform the task at hand, using what they know but may work within their "safe zone."
• They will continue when they meet barriers and continue the task until they "get it right," no matter the steps of revision.
• They will take steps when they meet a barrier (ask, use help file, experiment).
• Students will ask for help/overcome feeling "stupid" with computers.
• They will realize technology is not a panacea and has its limitations and glitches. When it fails, it may not be their fault.

What evidence of student progress did you see and how did you document it?
For me, meaningful assessment is assessment that reflects what learners can do with technology. It's an assessment based on performance, and it needs to be based on a framework that can be customized to address our learners' expectations, time constraints, and other demands of our program.

For example, as soon as learners are comfortable with the basics of a word-processor, I have them create a daily activity sheet that tracks their daily achievements. I give them the basic information that needs to be in it—typing speed for the day, what skills they picked up during the day, how they used the Internet to gather information, where they are having difficulties. I then introduce some of the more advanced draw features of the word-processor and then cut them loose to customize the sheet.

Learners complete these activity sheets before they leave each day; they learn to save them to their floppy discs and later to our server space upstairs. They then print them out and place them in their portfolios. Immediately they pick up the print menu dialogs needed to switch their computer between printing on our black and white and color printers. More advanced students have learned how to send me the sheets as attachments to e-mail. These products give a day-to-day picture of student performance and are tangible examples of knowledge in action.