23 January 2002

Americans Should Get Smarter about Technology, Study Finds

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Americans live in a world where everyday life is increasingly dependent on technology, but even as consumers revel in their latest electronic gadgets, they are technologically illiterate, according to a new report from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC).

"Americans use technology with a minimal comprehension of how or why it works or the implications of its use of even where it comes from. We drive high-tech cars but know little more than how to operate the steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal. We fill shopping carts with highly processed foods but are largely ignorant of their content, or how they are developed, grown, packaged or delivered," according to "Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More about Technology." (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10250.html?onpi_topnews_011702)

The report urges a broad educational campaign -- in school systems and society at large -- that will heighten technological literacy among Americans. Technological literacy, as defined in the report, encompasses not only the ability to use the latest devices, but an understanding of the risks and benefits of their use and some comprehension of the engineering processes that yield the products of technology.

Produced after a two-year series of meetings and workshops, the report suggests that many citizens harbor serious misperceptions about technology, unaware of its true scope. "They are not aware that modern technology is the fruit of a complex interplay between science, engineering, politics, ethics, law and other factors," the report says.

Lacking that full understanding, the authors of "Technically Speaking" argue that Americans -- citizens and policy makers alike -- are ill prepared to make decisions about technology in their own lives. Do they want to buy foods produced through biotechnology? Do they want their elected representatives to support research into human cloning? Do they approve of the investment of public funds in technological research?

"Having a literate citizenry is a cornerstone of democracy," said Karen Falkenberg, a member of the Committee on Technological Literacy from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, speaking at a symposium on the subject held at the National Academy of Sciences. "That's what this is about."

When new technology is a source of economic and social change, as it currently is in many developed nations, technological illiteracy may threaten sound public decision-making and the public's welfare. Jonathan R. Cole, another member of the Committee on Technological Literacy, said, "As individuals, parents, citizens and leaders, we will substitute myth and ideology for facts and rational choice. We will relinquish control and power to make important decisions that affect our health and quality of life to others who may not have our best interests in mind."

The report examines several news-making controversies in which technological literacy -- or the lack of it -- has played a critical role. In a discussion of the international debate about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the NAE report says the controversy over bioengineering "illustrates the current mismatch between the adoption of a new technology and society's ability to deal with it."

Besides their general conclusions, however, the authors acknowledge they need more data about the depth and breadth of technological illiteracy in the United States. "We really don't know what we don't know," said committee member and technology educator Rodney L. Custer

The report says no assessment tests exist to measure what school children know about technology, so it recommends various actions to accumulate more information about what children and adults know about technology, how they define it and how best to teach them about technology.

Some participants at the symposium emphasized the importance of insuring strong math, science and computer programs in schools, but members of the committee emphasized that those programs alone don't encompass all there is to technological literacy. Legal, economic, political and social issues can arise as a society weighs a decision to embrace or reject a technological development, they said, and those are the decisions that today's citizens must be capable of confronting. For that reason, the committee is recommending that the importance of technology should be incorporated into subjects as diverse as language arts, art and social studies.

The NAE study also recommends better programs to enable public school teachers to incorporate the study of technology in their curricula, and incentives to insure that textbook publishers treat the subject in the books sold to U.S. school systems.