Conclusions. In the classroom project described earlier, Ben and his teammates had to know more than just technology to do well. Entering a URL into a browser and clicking on hyperlinks was not the intent of the task. They had to think about what type of information they needed to find, what types of Web sites might provide that information, how to locate the information they needed and how to decide if they found what they were looking for. In other words, their project helped them improve their ICT literacy.
ICT literacy focuses on the critical thinking and problem solving that we do when dealing with information in digital environments. It consists of the research and communication skills that occur in the context of technology. Whereas these skills are often gained through education, they extend well beyond academic life to the workplace and other real-world pursuits that help us function in an information- and technology-rich society.
Yet there is a growing consensus that students leave higher education without these 21st century literacy skills. The role of the ETS ICT Literacy Assessment is to document the lack of student literacy skills and help inform educators who seek to improve the ICT literacy of their students. ICT literacy, as defined in this article, addresses the “new illiteracy” concerns of higher education in a way that attention solely to technology competence would not. |