More Than IM and MP3 PDF Print E-mail
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Wednesday, 06 July 2005
More Than IM and MP3
Inside Higher Ed - Washington,DC,USA

Many students these days prefer instant messaging to phone calls, and music downloads (legal or otherwise) to music purchases. But students’ agility with those technologies doesn’t necessarily mean they can tell a quality online source from an advertisement. Or that they know how to use e-mail to communicate effectively.

Measuring those skills — and helping colleges plan curricular and library offerings accordingly — is the goal of a new standardized test that the Educational Testing Service is now opening up to widespread use, with the first such administration scheduled for January. The exam — which is designed for placement and evaluation, not admissions — has been in a testing period with a small group of colleges.

The Information and Communication Technology Assessment, as the test is known, can be scored individually and colleges can receive aggregate scores. The test was first announced last year, but a number of changes have been made based on early administrations of the exam.

Terry Egan, project manager for the test for ETS, said that the exam grew out of a sense among educators that there is more than a “digital divide,” but a “proficiency divide” in which students “have access to technology, but don’t know how to use it.”

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