Testing Technological Literacy

ETS is at it again!

They have now developed a test to measure technology literacy. I am really not into the idea of having even MORE testing our classrooms, but I have to admit that the focus of this test is interesting.

Here is a quote from the WashingtonPost.com article.

"Students will receive an individual score on a point scale of 400 to 700, and schools will get reports showing how students fare in seven core skills: defining, accessing, managing, integrating, evaluating, creating and communicating information.

The new "core" version that will be sold to high schools can be taken in a school computer lab over about 75 minutes and consists of 14 short tasks, lasting three to five minutes each, and one longer task of about 15 minutes. Students may be asked, for example, to determine what variables should go where in assembling a graph, and then use a simple program to create it. They could also be asked to research a topic on the Web and evaluate the authoritativeness of what they find."

I am surprised at the nature of the tasks. The idea of asking kids to do something meaningful with informaton and and having them determine the reliability and validity of the source is a good idea. I was expecting something much worse.

Here is a good web site with critical evaluation of internet resources links.

What do you think about the idea of a tech literacy test?

Jim :-)