As states adopt the common core state standards and next generation assessments for the 2014 - 2015 school year, the importance of students' technology literacy will increase Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The next generation assessments will require students to complete technology performance tasks. For the first time in mandatory testing, students' technology literacy will directly impact a school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rating. Technology literacy is defined as the ability to operate hardware and software (computer literacy), conduct effective research for and then evaluate digital content for accuracy and merit (internet and information literacy), and digitally communicate effectively(digital media literacy). Research has shown students are not technology literate. Michigan has lacked a consistent implementation of an educational technology integrated curriculum and assessment of 8th grade students' technology literacy skills. The central focus of this descriptive case study was the investigation of whether the consistent implementation of the Using Technology in Career Education (UTCE) curriculum could positively effect students' technology literacy skills. The study explored the charter school environment, teacher and student technology literacy, and UTCE implementation. Participants were two 8th grade classes at an urban charter school enrolled in the UTCE course and a Creative Writing course. Data tri-angulation was achieved through classroom observations, student surveys, teacher archival documents and student performance tests. First, category construction examined the data for each single case (vignette). Second, the research questions guided the cross-case data analysis to discover patterns and themes. Vignette 1 answered Research Question #1 and addressed the most effective implementation of UTCE using data from classroom observations to determine the level of technology integration. Vignette 2 answered Research Question #2 and investigated the relationship between teacher and student technology literacy, classroom instruction and the effect on UTCE implementation. Vignette 3 answered Research Questions #3 and #4 and focused on measuring student technology performance and the effect the UTCE curriculum had on student technology literacy. An initial impression was the inability to type could potentially negatively impact students' performance on the next generation assessments. Overall data analysis supported the theoretical proposition that consistent delivery of a comprehensive educational technology curriculum improved students' technology literacy skills.

The aim of this study was to investigate the result of an effort to support reading development and the reading motivation. My approach was an intervention study during four weeks, where intensive reading in a group of three pupils in grade one took place. Individual conversations and group conversations were central methods in combination with different ways of processing the texts. Interviews were conducted with the class teacher and the participating children to see the difference in reading and motivation before and after the project. The result shows that an intensive period with reading fiction books with subsequent conversations and different processing of the text is a useful developing method for decoding, reading comprehension and reading motivation.

The aim of this study was to explore and describe how four teachers work with literacy in preschool and grade one, ages 6 and 7. The aim was also to explore the progression of reading and writing as well as the collaboration between teachers in preschool and grade one. The study has a qualitative approach and data was collected through observations and interviews. The findings indicate that teachers in preschool have similar activities and approach to what guides the work. Regarding teachers in grade one it shows that they both are working with reading and writing in a varied way. But their approach, materials and tools shows some differences. The collaboration in one of the schools is perceived as good. At the other school it indicates that the teachers want a closer cooperation.

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Presented June 3, 2004, at the Third International Conference on eLiteracy, St. John's University, New York. / There is a significant segment of the population which was virtually bypassed by the electronic revolution. These people are primarily retired or close to retirement, and are finding it increasingly necessary to have computer skills to interact with the world around them. However, due to the aging process, learning those computer skills is more difficult for them. This case study details how the staff of the North County Regional Library Computer Center addressed those issues and developed a series of classes for first time computer users. Based on research into issues in gerontology, such as cognitive and motor declines, as well as automaticity and semantic memory, the staff modified materials and techniques to make computer training achievable for many older citizens who were "falling through the cracks." The staff at the North County Regional Library developed a short, beginning-level computer course consisting of four lessons, which has been offered by the Library since early 2003. Results have been very positive. Participants have ranged in age from middle-age to elderly (80+ years). Since participants must go through the instructors to register, classes have been limited to those who were total novices, with virtually no exposure to computers. Sample materials and outlines will be provided, as well as statistical summaries from evaluation instruments.

This is the authorâ s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Museum Management and Curatorship. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Museum Management and Curatorship, 21 (4), 317-335. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.musmancur.2006.09.003 / This paper presents results from twenty-one semi-structured interviews with museum information professionals who were asked about their experiences working with information resources, tools, and technologies in museums. The interviews were analyzed to develop an understanding of the information literacy skills of museum information professionals. This paper presents the results of this analysis, and discusses the state of information literacy in museums and the increasing need for museum information professionals to possess information literacy skills. The results illustrate how information literacy is defined by information professionals in museums, and how perceptions of information literacy and its importance to museums have changed over time.

An ethnographic study of the Pima County Adult Education Family Literacy Program in Tucson, Arizona, reveals ideological and pedagogical tensions and contradictions within it. Some elements of the Program are "accommodationist," aimed at helping students fit into an unjust status quo as they find it. Other elements are "liberatory," aimed at empowering students to transform the status quo. Recommendations are made aimed at steering the Program in more liberatory directions without sacrificing its crucial role in preparing students for further education and work. The Program during 1994-95 was a collaboration among Pima County Adult Education, Head Start, Sunnyside and Tucson Unified School Districts, and the National Center for Family Literacy. It involved nearly a hundred families, mostly young mothers with preschool children, at five elementary school sites. Students were predominantly Hispanic, many recent immigrants from Mexico, with low income and minimal levels of education. Adult students received ESL and/or GED education while their children were enrolled in Head Start at the same sites. Other features of the Program included parenting skills education, vocational education, and volunteer work by the adult students at school sites. A review of literature places the Program in the complex environment of adult literacy education generally and, more specifically, the national family literacy movement in the United States. Competing definitions of literacy (nominal, functional, cultural, critical) are examined, as well as two prevailing philosophies in family literacy programs: a "deficit model" of language use by disadvantaged people, and a "transmission model" of school literacy from parent to child. All theoretical principles are related to the PCAE Family Literacy Program. The research methodology is reflexive ethnography, in which the researcher tries to account for his personal interaction with the phenomena studied and incorporates it into every aspect of the ethnography, from collection to presentation to interpretation of data. The last chapter is a personal essay in the form of a literacy narrative that attempts to relate the autobiography of the ethnographer to the lives of the ethnographic subjects.

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