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- A -
Ability — The capacity to determine the application
of knowledge and skills.
Across grade levels — Inclusive of all grades
specified in the identified levels of an institution of learning, such
as across grades kindergarten through twelve for public education.
Activity — A process, function, or task that
occurs over a period of time and has recognizable results.
Administrator — Professional who manages
any aspect of the educational system, including supervisors and teachers
as appropriate.
Advisory committee — An organized body comprised
of informed and qualified individuals with a specified responsibility
to give advice in the development of an idea or process. Members may
include parents, business and industry personnel, local engineers, technologists,
and interested citizens.
Articulated/Articulation — A planned sequence
of curricula and course offerings from Grades K-12. The planned sequence
may involve looking at course offerings across grade levels (vertical
articulation) or the curriculum at a single grade level (horizontal
articulation).
Assessment — 1. See student assessment. 2.
See evaluation. Note: STL, AETL, and the addenda documents
differentiate between assessment and evaluation, taking the position
that students are assessed and programs are evaluated.
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- B -
Benchmark — In Standards for Technological
Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (ITEA, 2000/2002),
it is a written statement that describes the specific developmental
components by various grade bands (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) that students
should know and be able to do in order to achieve a standard.
Best practices — What works and does not
work in the laboratory-classroom.
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- C -
Cognitive — 1. Having a basis in or being
reducible to empirical, factual knowledge. 2. A teaching method that
recognizes the close relationship between what is known and what is
to be learned. The teaching proceeds to build on the student's knowledge
base by helping the student associate new material with something that
is familiar.
Content — See content standards.
Content standards — 1. The standards in Standards
for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology
that provide written statements of the knowledge and abilities students
should possess in order to be technologically literate. 2. The standards
in other content areas that specify what students should know and be
able to do, including those in National Science Education Standards
or Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.
Continuous — Uninterrupted in time, sequence,
substance, or extent.
Course — A series of units that lasts for
a specified period of time (semester, year, etc.) and is designed around
a specified school subject.
Criteria — Desired specifications (elements
or features) of a product or system.
Curriculum/Curricula — Specifications of
the way content is delivered, including the structure, organization,
balance, and presentation of content in the laboratory-classroom.
Curriculum development — The process of creating
planned curriculum, pedagogy, instruction, and presentation modes.
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- D -
Design — An iterative decision-making process
that produces plans by which resources are converted into products or
systems that meet human needs and wants or solve problems.
Develop — To change the form of something
through a succession of states or stages, each of which is preparatory
to the next. The successive changes are undertaken to improve the quality
of or refine the resulting object or software.
Disciplines — Specified realms of content.
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- E -
Educational standards — See standard.
Educational (instructional) technology —
1. The study of computers and other media. 2. The use of technological
developments, such as computers, audiovisual equipment, and mass media,
as tools to enhance and optimize the teaching and learning environment
in all school subjects, including technology education.
Educators — Those professionals involved
in the teaching and learning process, including teachers and administrators.
Effective — Produces the desired results
with efficiency.
Engineering — The profession of or work performed
by an engineer. Engineering involves the knowledge of the mathematical
and natural sciences (biological and physical) gained by study, experience,
and practice that are applied with judgment and creativity to develop
ways to utilize the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of
mankind.
Expert — Having specialized knowledge and/or
ability.
Evaluate/Evaluation — Collection and processing
of information and data to determine how well a design meets the requirements
and to provide direction for improvements. Note: STL, AETL,
and the addenda documents differentiate between assessment and evaluation,
taking the position that students are assessed and programs are evaluated.
See also program evaluation.
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- F & G -
Goal — The expected end result. In standards-based
education, this can be specifically applied to learning, instruction,
student assessment, professional development, and program enhancement.
Grade level — 1. A stage in the development
of a child's education (i.e., K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12). 2. From grade to grade and across grade bands (i.e., Grades 2-3
or Grades 3-5).
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- H -
Hands-on — Experiences or activities that
involve tacit doing as a means of acquiring, or a complement to acquiring,
knowledge, and abilities.
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- I -
Implement/Implementation — To proceed with
practical application.
Information system — A system of elements
that receive and transfer information. This system may use different
types of carriers, such as satellites, fiber optics, cables, and telephone
lines, in which switching and storage devices are often important parts.
In-service — 1. A practicing educator. 2.
Workshops, lectures, and other educational opportunities designed to
keep practicing professionals abreast of the latest developments in
their fields.
Integrated/Integration — The process of bringing
all parts together into a whole.
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- J -
Journal — A record of understandings, reflections,
and/or opinions written as periodic entries (daily, weekly).
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- K -
Knowledge — 1. The body of truth, information,
and principles acquired by mankind. 2. Interpreted information that
can be used.
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- L -
Laboratory-classroom — The environment in
which student learning related to the study of technology takes place.
At the elementary school level, this environment will likely be a regular
classroom. At the middle and high school levels, a separate laboratory-classroom
with areas for hands-on activities as well as group instruction could
constitute the environment.
Lesson — Day-by-day plan for learning in
the classroom.
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- M -
Mathematics — The study of abstract patterns
and relationships that results in an exact language used to communicate
about them.
Model — A visual, mathematical, or three-dimensional
representation in detail of an object or design, often smaller than
the original. A model is often used to test ideas, make changes to a
design, and to learn more about what would happen to a similar, real
object.
Modification — 1. Changing to ensure accuracy.
2. Adjustment in focus or level of rigor.
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- N, O, & P -
Perspective — An individual point of view
based on experience.
Power — 1. The amount of work done in a given
period of time. 2. The source of energy or motive force by which a physical
system or machine is operated.
Practices — The established applications
of knowledge.
Pre-service — 1. A teacher candidate. 2.
Undergraduate education for those who intend to teach.
Process — 1. Human activities used to create,
invent, design, transform, produce, control, maintain, and use products
or systems. 2. A systematic sequence of actions that combines resources
to produce an output.
Professional — Of or relating to practicing
one's occupation with skill, knowledge, dedication, and with a conscious
accountability for one's actions.
Professional development — A continuous process
of lifelong learning and growth that begins early in life, continues
through the undergraduate, pre-service experience, and extends through
the in-service years.
Program — Everything that affects student
learning, including content, professional development, curricula, instruction,
student assessment, and the learning environment, implemented across
grade levels.
Project — A teaching or assessment method
used to enable students to apply their knowledge and abilities. These
may take many forms and are limited by time, resources, and imagination.
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- Q & R -
Research — Systematic, scientific, documented
study.
Resource — The things needed to get a job
done. In a technological system, the basic technological resources are:
energy, capital, information, machines and tools, materials, people,
and time.
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- S -
Science — Understanding the natural world.
Skill — An ability that has been acquired
by training or experience.
Standard — A written statement or statements
about what is valued that can be used for making a judgment of quality.
Standards-based — Educational standards provide
the content basis on which student learning is built. Everything that
affects student learning is planned to support students as they attain
standards.
Standards-based reform — An educational movement
that supports maintaining high academic expectations, or standards,
for all students that holds schools, teachers, and students accountable
for student learning and achievement.
Strategy/Strategies — An elaborate and systematic
plan of action.
Structure — Something that has been constructed
or built of many parts and held or put together in a particular way.
Student assessment — A systematic, multi-step
process of collecting evidence on student learning, understanding, and
abilities and using that information to inform instruction and provide
feedback to the learner, thereby enhancing learning.
Study of technology — Also referred to as
technological study. Any formal or informal education about human innovation,
change, or modification of the natural environment. See also technology
education.
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- T -
Teacher candidates — Individuals preparing
to teach.
Teacher educators — Individuals who deliver
pre-service and in-service teacher education, including, but not limited
to, college and university faculty.
Technological literacy — The ability to use,
manage, understand, and evaluate technology.
Technological literacy standards — The standards
in Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of
Technology and Advancing Excellence in Technological Literacy:
Student Assessment, Professional Development, and Program Standards
that identify the content and provide criteria for the implementation
of that content for developing technological literacy.
Technological study — See technology education.
Technology — The innovation, change, or modification
of the natural environment to satisfy perceived human needs and wants.
Technology education — A school subject specifically
designed to help students develop technological literacy.
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- U -
Unit — An organized series of learning activities,
lectures, projects, and other teaching strategies that focuses on a
specific topic related to the curriculum as a whole.
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- V -
Vision — A contemplative image of future
promise and possibility articulated with the intention to inspire others.
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- W, X, Y, & Z -
Workshop — A meeting or series of meetings
devoted to discussion and demonstration of practical applications in
a specialized field or subject.
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TfAAP was initiated and administered by the International
Technology Education Association (ITEA), and funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA).
* Glossary Terms for STL, ATEL, and Addenda,
a complete glossary of terms used in the publications developed by the
Technology for All Americans Project (TfAAP) is available for download
in printable PDF format on the TfAAP Publications page.
