Innovative Approaches to Developing Technology Awareness, Competence, and Skills across Academic Disciplines

There is a broad understanding that educational programs should be adapted to a changing world, where technologies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and versatile. Academic programs are faced with an increased need to incorporate technology-related learning outcomes, including ethics of digitalization, critical literacy, digital citizenship, technology awareness, technology competence, and technology skills. Students of all disciplines need to grasp the basic concepts related to technology development and use, as well as the social, cultural, and political context in which technology is designed and used. An understanding of the potential and limitations of those technologies is also crucial. There is, however, little knowledge as to what pedagogical methods can be used to achieve these goals and what results those methods may yield. There is also the question of what content is appropriate to teach at what level and how integrated the teaching of technology needs to be with the rest of the teaching to ensure optimal learning experiences and satisfactory learning outcomes.

With this Research Topic, we aim to describe, explore, and discuss innovative ways of teaching technology in disciplines that are generally considered to be "non-technical" (for example nursing, journalism, social work, etc.). We hope to gather empirical and theoretical contributions that can shed light on the questions of what pedagogical methods are most appropriate to achieve the required learning outcomes related to technology awareness and proficiency, what content is suitable at which stage of the educational journey, and to what extent this content should be tailored to the main topic or topics of the educational program. Our focus will be on identifying and describing the processes of pedagogical innovation that can scaffold the development of those new skills, including 21st-century skills. The processes of transformation that curricula have to undergo are of particular interest to this Research Topic.

We are interested in manuscripts that provide new knowledge in the field of technology education in non-technology educational programs. Articles presenting empirical data will be prioritized, however there is also space for work focused on developing relevant theoretical frameworks. We welcome qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as mixed-method studies.

We welcome contributions dealing with one or more of the following developing topics:

• Innovative methods for teaching computational thinking in non-technical education;
• Pedagogical approaches to integrate GDPR and privacy issues in the curriculum;
• Developing systems thinking and an understanding of complexity;
• Use of artificial intelligence tools in various educational settings;
• Issues of algorithmic bias;
• Inclusion, and exclusion;
• Problem-based experiential learning approaches;
• Design thinking and creative pedagogical methods.

The list above is not comprehensive, and papers on other relevant themes are welcome.

Keywords: Technology awareness, Technology Competences, Technology Skills, Higher Education

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.