Test evaluates MSU students’ digital literacy

MSU has the most students of any school nationwide participating in the first run of the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, administered by Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service.

Students in the school’s general education Computer for Learning classes will take the test by May 5.

The simulation-based, 75-minute test asks students to perform 15 information management tasks, such as extracting information from a database, developing a spreadsheet or composing an e-mail summary of research findings.

“There is an assumption that because students have grown up with computers, they are ICT proficient,” said Sue McCrory, coordinator of MSU’s Computers for Learning course, in an ETS news release. “Yes, they can buy things online and instant message, but many of them have never used a spreadsheet or don’t know whether the information they are finding on the Internet is from an authoritative source.”

The test’s results will allow MSU to evaluate the effectiveness of its computer-training curriculum and better prepare students for the work force, McCrory said.

“We need to gauge where they are on the proficiency scale, so that we can determine in which areas we need to invest the most time and resources,” she said in the release. “In the working world, when employers give assignments, they don’t explain which application to use or how to accomplish those assignments. They expect that their employees will have the cognitive and technical skills to figure that out for themselves.”

ETS defines digital literacy as the ability to define, assess, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in a technological environment.

MSU students will take the core version of the assessment, designed for high school seniors and first-year college students. An advanced level of the test also is available.

More than 7,000 students at 38 schools nationwide are signed up for the test.

ETS is offering the test at no charge to institutions that can test at least 100 students by May 5. Continuous testing will begin in August.[[In-content Ad]]