INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY LITERACY IN TEACHER EDUCATION

The purpose of this research was to increase an understanding of the practices and issues of information and communications technology (ICT) literacy in the teacher education program at the University of British Columbia, Canada. This research explored characteristics related to (ICT) literacy: A) program effects on ICT competencies; B) gender and ICT literacy; C) age and ICT literacy; D) attitudes toward technology and ICT literacy; and E) program effects on ICT use. The analyses of the data and the findings, in particular, the gender differences in perceptions of ICT competencies, the relationship between student attitudes toward ICT and their perceptions of ICT competencies, the correlations between students'' ICT uses in practicum and their perceptions of ICT competencies, should help to shed some light on directions for future research, as well as curriculum design in teacher education programs, and should be particularly beneficial to educators, and anyone who may be considering ICT as a career. One useful way to think about ICT and technological literacy is to consider one of the characteristics of ICT as a component of dynamic change and its impact on education.