ICT Literacy Assessment

NPR Morning Edition did a report on the new computer literacy test being developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Although this Web-based assessment is just being piloted and it’s not used as a requirement for college entrance, as are the SATs -- who knows what the future holds. ETS announced back in November that they were developing this test as a resource for colleges and universities to help them better understand their students’ information and communication technology literary levels. 

The 2 hour pilot test, in which each student was paid $25 to take, is over so you are out of luck if you want to take it; however, you can read about Amit Asaravala’s (a writer for Wired magazine) experience or look at a demo on the ETS’s ICT Literacy Assessment  site. Also, check out the white paper; it defines what they mean by information and communications technology:

ICT proficiency is the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and /or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical / legal issues surrounding the access and use of information.

The original white paper defines seven cognitive processes involved; however, according to another more recent, Framework for ICT Literacy, it has been narrowed down to five, the first and the last have been cut (define and communicate)

• Define--Using ICT tools to identify and appropriately represent an information need
• Access-- Knowing about and knowing how to collect and/or retrieve information
• Manage--organize information into existing classification schemes
• Integrate-- Interpreting, summarizing, comparing and contrasting information using similar or different forms of representation
• Evaluate-- Reflecting to make judgments about the quality, relevance, usefulness, or efficiency of information
• Create --Generating new information and knowledge by adapting, applying, designing, inventing, or representing information
• Communicate-- Conveying information and knowledge to various individuals and/or groups

I question why they dropped define and communicate: an information literate person, using ICT tools or not, needs to identify what information they need and after they access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create, they need to be able to communicate their findings. Perhaps ETS felt they couldn’t test those.