Proposed Technology Literacy Certification Curriculum

Why Do We Need a Technology Literacy Certification Curriculum?
Increasingly there are micro-tools which empower workers to publish and businesses to run efficiently. But how can training be formalized and valued within organizations? And how can organizations know if a person has all the requisite tools and experience? I firmly believe there is a need for technology literacy certification.

Given the perfect storm of cultural change that is rapidly erupting, the time is now for career and business 2.0 knowledge/literacy skills. Although there are a plethora of issues such a literacy program could include–I believe the following form the fundamentals for such a certification:

• Enterprise 2.0 tools for cloud computing, software as service, and Google apps
• Advanced Google search skills
• Advanced social search techniques
• Blogs, wikis, video, and podcasts
• Perhaps productive social networking using Facebook, Linked in, Ning, Jigsaw, and blogs.
• Assessing digital vs. non-digital alternatives. (tracking resource, funding, and hours saved)
• Dealing with information overload
• What are the demands and struggles of the knowledge/creative worker today (and what will they be in the future)
• How have the fundamentals of communication (ethos, logos, and mythos) changed in the web 2.0 communications ecosystem?
• Techniques for dealing with virtual teamwork and project management (learning to use the collaborative infrastructure and software as well as work effectively with human motivations, failures, goals, and aspirations)
• How do business and information travel in the world of flat earth and globalization.
• Content vs. People
• Optional: open innovation + Wikinomics
• Optional: Visual communication
• Optional: Stats and analytics
• Of course advanced techniques and best practices could form another level of certification.
• In could include more general business and career oriented info

At this crossroads in technological history its imperative to have a defining criteria for someone who merely uses Google to one who is a skilled Google ninja.

There could be woven into a curriculum which had both a strong experiential and business oriented project based learning as well as a strong emphasis in the humanities and cultural trend watching.

I’ve discussed this topic in various capacities before:

• Web 2.0 for Higher Education
• 21st Century Skills by Tony Wagner
• The need for media literacy 2.0 at the college level (and in enterprise)