LISNews: Librarian News

Slashdot
points to the ETS's (Educational Testing Service) Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. The assessment
attempts to measure critical-thinking and technical skills that include
the ability to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and
communicate information. Wired
journalist Amit Asaravala took a trial test, which 'may' include completing
tasks like "scanning e-mail messages for important attachments, looking
for documents using a search engine and picking the most authoritative
sources out of a set of search results." Asaravala suggests it's still
rough and doesn't (yet) coincide well with real world internet technologys
but that ETS is using feedback from the test trials to make refinements.

ETS describes
information and communication technology literacy proficiency as:

... 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.

ETS has a demo page
that links to a Flash demo (that wasn't working for me) that shows three
sample tasks:

    1: "Display and Interpret Data:
Examinees create a visual representation of data to answer two research
questions."
    2: "Advanced Search: Examinees construct
an advanced search based on a complex information need."
    3: "Comparing Information: Examinees summarize
information from a variety of sources, then draw conclusions from their
summary."

Hermit ;-)