Institute:	QUT
Discipline:	Multidisciplinary
Title:	"Technological Literacy: Building a foundation for flexible delivery"
Year addressed:	1st Year
Phase:	Identifying Attributes and Learning Experiences
Generic Attributes:	Technological Literacies

Issues Revealed:

-" increasingly, technological literacy is acting as a window or a lens for the beginning scholar, providing the means or framework through which academic and information literacies are revealed, focused and developed"
-The findings from academic staff surveys strongly support the need for all students to use word processing, e-mail and Internet applications
-Technological literacy overlaps with information and academic literacies and therefore all need to be considered and "infused into a discipline or knowledge domain approach".
-There was a need to develop a suite of resources, strategies and professional development opportunities primarily, though not solely, for academic staff to use in a teaching context.

Action Taken:

-Aim: Students should be able to demonstrate mastery of technological skills and conceptual understanding through successful participation in the activities needed to complete unit assignments and assessment tasks.much of the assessment of technological literacy might be expected to be ongoing, formative and self reflective on the part of the student".
-The need for Technological Literacy was identified as a necessary Graduate Attribute through research conducted..
-An integrated curriculum was developed that allowed the attribute to be applied within the context of specific units and programs, differing according to how they were adapted by different lecturers for their subject.
-Many of the learning experiences focused on the use of web resources which could offer the students an "array of different pedagogical approaches to the acquisition of the same skill eg using email." The student's learning experience "would vary according to their ability to engage productively with the resource, their level of motivation and experience".
-The specific technological skills and conceptual understanding required to complete the unit were outlined specifically within the subject overview.

Lessons Learned/Reflections:

-It was a difficult task to produce a set of common templates which could be adapted for a number of subjects that would have "sufficient detail to be useful".
-Much of the time devoted to the development of templates focused on broad staff development issues such as "nurturing a common understanding of technological literacy concepts". Therefore the development of the templates did not follow a "well mapped or efficient production process'. These issues were particularly relevant to late adopters or "2nd generation" technology users.
-The consultative approach to developing this project was very time consuming but was essential " if the team is to avoid producing resources that are used rarely beyond the date of the project"
-It was important to inspire the confidence of staff involved to keep the resources being used by them. The staff uptake of the resources influences and improves the learning outcome of all students.
-The project will eventually develop a set of resources that can be adapted and integrated into a subject by academic staff. This should reduce the need for academic staff to re-invent materials and approaches to teach Technological Literacy skills to their students.