An Online Resource for Developing Technological Literacy Courses

This work describes an effort to create on online resource for engineering faculty who would like to teach general education engineering or technological literacy courses for non-engineers. Engineering departments can contribute to a greater understanding of engineering and technology by offering courses on technological topics at a level that is appropriate for nonengineers. However doing so requires appropriate curriculum and course materials. To facilitate this process, a review was conducted of technological literacy courses already being taught by engineering faculty. It was found that courses can be classified in four categories. These four groups are survey courses, focus courses, design courses and connections courses. The survey courses aim to cover a wide range to technological products, systems, and issues. The focus courses address a more narrowly defined area such as energy or nanotechnology. The design courses emphasize developing a familiarity with the engineering design process. Connections courses concentrate on the interconnections between engineering, technology and other areas of society and culture. These four categories are proposed as templates or models that other faculty can use in developing and planning a course. These four models were found to be consistent with the recommendations made by the National Academy of Engineering and the International Technology Education Association regarding standards for technological literacy. It is intended to develop an online database of course materials organized around the proposed framework. An additional feature to be included is classification of material based on cognitive level of Bloom’s taxonomy. The current status of the development of the online system is described.