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The Technology Literacy Challenge (TLC)

The Technology Literacy Challenge (TLC) project sponsored by the Clinton administration is the extended example Selfe uses throughout the book to illustrate the problems associated with large-scale, government-sponsored literacy programs and a skills-based definition of technological literacy. The project was fueled by economics: 

[I]t became clear that the Clinton administration understood technological expansion as a linchpin that would serve to reestablish American prominence and expand American possibilities in global marketplaces, while serving to revitalize the flagging domestic economy. (50)

In order to "reestablish American prominence" through the development of technological goods and services, it became necessary to educate Americans to prepare for jobs requiring specialized technical skills. It was/is seen as the job of the educational system to produce such workers. The TLC, therefore, is an effective, concrete example of how government, the private sector, and education converge through technological literacy.