[OPLINLIST] Measuring Information Literacy

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:26:48 -0500

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For those pondering information literacy as a long range planning service
response, something to ponder....

Jimmie

Jimmie Epling, Regional Librarian

FIVCO/Big Sandy Regional Office

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

P.O. Box 370, 122 South Main Cross St. 

Louisa, KY 41230-0370

V: 606.638.4797  F:606.638.0586

jimmie.epling@ky.gov

Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital 

New York Times. Jan. 17, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17test.html?oref=login
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17test.html?oref=login> 

            There was a time when researching a high school or college term
paper was a far simpler thing. A student writing about, say, Count Ferdinand
von Zeppelin, might have checked out a book on the history of aviation from
the local library or tucked into the family's dog-eared Britannica. An
ambitious college freshman might have augmented the research by looking up
some old newspaper clips on microfilm or picking up a monograph in the
stacks.

            Today, in a matter of minutes, students can identify these and
thousands of other potential resources on the Internet - and, as any teacher
will attest, they are not always adept at sorting the wheat from the chaff.

            Now the Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit group behind
the SAT, Graduate Record Examination and other college tests, has developed
a new test that it says can assess students' ability to make good critical
evaluations of the vast amount of material available to them.

            The Information and Communications Technology literacy
assessment, which will be introduced at about two dozen colleges and
universities later this month, is intended to measure students' ability to
manage exercises like sorting e-mail messages or manipulating tables and
charts, and to assess how well they organize and interpret information from
many sources and in myriad forms. About 10,000 undergraduates at schools
from the University of California, Los Angeles to Bronx Community College
are expected to take the test during the first offering period, which ends
March 31.

            Still, just what is meant by "information" or even
"technological" literacy remains a hotly debated topic in academic circles,
and there is no widespread agreement on whether such skills can be taught,
much less measured in a test. What seems certain, however, is that a
lucrative market is emerging for testing companies that are willing to fill
the perceived need.

            The initial technology test is aimed at midlevel college
students, but the Educational Testing Service says it has also received
inquiries from high schools and businesses. And while the new assessment is
not a high-stakes requirement for academic advancement like the SAT, it
seems inevitable that most students will one day need to prove themselves
along these lines.

            Part of the problem, many educators say, is that the traditional
vetting process for information is now so easily bypassed.

            "In an earlier time, information came, really, from only one
place: the university library," said Lorie Roth, the assistant vice
chancellor of academic programs for the California State University system,
one of seven school systems that worked with the testing company over the
last two years to develop the test. "Now it is all part of one giant
continuum, and often the student is the sole arbiter of what is good
information, what is bad information and what all the shades are in
between."

            But not everyone agrees that measuring information literacy can
be done, even with a standardized test.

            "There is a basic problem with identifying a single set of
skills that could possibly relate to all people," said Stanley Wilder, the
associate dean of the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester
in New York, who wrote a withering assessment of the information literacy
movement in The Chronicle of Higher Education two weeks ago. "There isn't a
serious critique of any of the assumptions that info-literacy makes," Mr.
Wilder said in an interview. "They'll tell you that it teaches critical
thinking, but there's never been a study that measures whether students are
really lacking this, or whether libraries can impact this."

            Be that as it may, it is true that the information literacy
movement could prove a windfall for companies like the Educational Testing
Service.

            Developing metrics for measuring how much students know - or how
much they have yet to learn - has become a lucrative market. Eduventures, a
research firm in Boston, estimated the assessment market for prekindergarten
to Grade 12 - excluding the college years and beyond - at $1.8 billion for
2003. Given President Bush's announcement last Wednesday that he plans to
expand the standardized testing mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act
- which includes a commitment to "ensuring that every student is
technologically literate by the time the student finishes the eighth grade"
- the market for assessments is certain to grow.

Beyond the SAT, the Educational Testing Service controls a separate boutique
market of higher-level tests like the Graduate Record Examination and the
Graduate Management Admission Test. Despite its nonprofit status, it is the
world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization.
The company administers and scores nearly 25 million tests annually in more
than 180 countries, and posted $825 million in revenues for fiscal year
2004.

            In an extensive report, "Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of
Technology," published in September, the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit
group that is often skeptical of technology in schools, was critical of the
new test. "For E.T.S., this is part of a broader global plan to develop and
promote international technology literacy standards, and then offer
countries around the world a chance to buy a full array of assessment
products and services that can be used to implement their standards," the
report said.

            But if critics see this as an unjustified entry into an already
littered field of standardized tests, the company argues that the
information age - and a new culture of accountability - demand it.

            "I think there's always that tension," said Teresa Egan, the
project manager who is steering the test's release at the end of this month.
"People feel there's too much testing across the board now. Or they ask
whether we are focusing so much time on testing that students don't have
time for other educational experiences.

            "But the public wants accountability. People want to ensure that
colleges are actually preparing students for the future - the future being
an information society." The technology test will cost colleges around $25 a
student - discounted to $20 for institutions that sign up during the first
testing period. Students will take the Web-based exam in classrooms or
instruction labs, logging on with access codes purchased by their schools.
Scores in the first round will be aggregated for each institution; the
company aims to make scoring for individual students available in 2006.

            In 2001, the testing company brought together an international
consortium of educators, technology specialists and government
representatives to begin defining the core characteristics of information
consumption at the college level.

            Knowing where and how to find information, they agreed, was just
the beginning. Interpreting, sorting, evaluating, manipulating and
repackaging information in dozens of forms from thousands of sources - as
well as having a fundamental understanding of the legal and ethical uses of
digital materials - are also important components.

            "Critical thinking is a central aspect of the new economy," said
Robert B. Reich, the secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, who
is now a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University.
Professor Reich is also the author of the 1991 book "Work of Nations:
Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism," which provided a something
of a touchstone for the information literacy movement. "Our high school
curricula are locked into an industrial age that may have only a tangential
relationship to the information age," he said in an interview.

            To the extent that efforts like the new technology test help
reshape curriculums along these lines, Mr. Reich said, they probably will
help.

            According to Ms. Egan of the Educational Testing Service, the
test is also fun.

            "Can you help me find a good source of products and gifts
designed for left-handers?" reads a sample question from a fictitious office
manager. "I'd like someplace that offers a wide range of merchandise with
product guarantees - also that has an online catalog and online ordering.
Discounts would also be a plus."

            Fictitious colleagues might then make suggestions via e-mail,
and the test taker might also get input by instant message from people using
screen names like SkyDiver, JJJunior and TVJunkie. The test taker would be
asked to consider the various sources and suggestions, and to rank them by
relevance to the original request.

            Other parts of the test ask students to do everything from the
seemingly mundane (like sorting e-mail messages into appropriate folders) to
head-scratching tasks like "reordering a table to maximize efficiency in two
tasks with incompatible requirements," according to a brochure.

            Asked if she had taken the test herself, Ms. Egan responded,
"What a cruel question.

            "I took it earlier on, when there was no way to produce a score
from it. But I knew myself that there was a lot I needed to learn."

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<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>For those pondering information literacy as a long range
planning service response, something to ponder....</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Jimmie</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Jimmie Epling, Regional Librarian</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>FIVCO/Big Sandy Regional Office</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives</span></font></p>

P.O. Box 370, 122 South
 Main Cross St.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
  font-family:Arial'>Louisa</span></font><font size=3 face=Arial><span
 style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, </span></font><font size=3
  face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>KY</span></font><font
 size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
  size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial'>41230-0370</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>V: 606.638.4797&nbsp; F:606.638.0586</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>jimmie.epling@ky.gov</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><b><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital </span></font></b></p>

New York Times. Jan. 17,
 2005

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17test.html?oref=login">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/technology/17test.html?oref=login</a></span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There was a time when researching a high school
or college term paper was a far simpler thing. A student writing about, say,
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, might have checked out a book on the history of
aviation from the local library or tucked into the family's dog-eared
Britannica. An ambitious college freshman might have augmented the research by
looking up some old newspaper clips on microfilm or picking up a monograph in
the stacks.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Today, in a matter of minutes, students can
identify these and thousands of other potential resources on the Internet -
and, as any teacher will attest, they are not always adept at sorting the wheat
from the chaff.</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now the Educational Testing Service, the
nonprofit group behind the SAT, Graduate Record Examination and other college
tests, has developed a new test that it says can assess students' ability to
make good critical evaluations of the vast amount of material available to
them.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Information and Communications Technology
literacy assessment, which will be introduced at about two dozen colleges and
universities later this month, is intended to measure students' ability to
manage exercises like sorting e-mail messages or manipulating tables and
charts, and to assess how well they organize and interpret information from
many sources and in myriad forms. About 10,000 undergraduates at schools from
the University of California, Los
 Angeles to Bronx Community
 College are expected to take the test during the first offering
period, which ends March 31.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Still, just what is meant by
&quot;information&quot; or even &quot;technological&quot; literacy remains a
hotly debated topic in academic circles, and there is no widespread agreement
on whether such skills can be taught, much less measured in a test. What seems
certain, however, is that a lucrative market is emerging for testing companies
that are willing to fill the perceived need.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The initial technology test is aimed at midlevel
college students, but the Educational Testing Service says it has also received
inquiries from high schools and businesses. And while the new assessment is not
a high-stakes requirement for academic advancement like the SAT, it seems
inevitable that most students will one day need to prove themselves along these
lines.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Part of the problem, many educators say, is that
the traditional vetting process for information is now so easily bypassed.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;In an earlier time, information came,
really, from only one place: the university library,&quot; said Lorie Roth, the
assistant vice chancellor of academic programs for the California State
University system, one of seven school systems that worked with the testing
company over the last two years to develop the test. &quot;Now it is all part
of one giant continuum, and often the student is the sole arbiter of what is
good information, what is bad information and what all the shades are in
between.&quot;

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But not everyone agrees that measuring
information literacy can be done, even with a standardized test.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;There is a basic problem with identifying
a single set of skills that could possibly relate to all people,&quot; said
Stanley Wilder, the associate dean of the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester in New York, who wrote
a withering assessment of the information literacy movement in The Chronicle of
Higher Education two weeks ago. &quot;There isn't a serious critique of any of
the assumptions that info-literacy makes,&quot; Mr. Wilder said in an
interview. &quot;They'll tell you that it teaches critical thinking, but
there's never been a study that measures whether students are really lacking
this, or whether libraries can impact this.&quot;

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Be that as it may, it is true that the
information literacy movement could prove a windfall for companies like the
Educational Testing Service.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Developing metrics for measuring how much
students know - or how much they have yet to learn - has become a lucrative
market. Eduventures, a research firm in Boston, estimated the
assessment market for prekindergarten to Grade 12 - excluding the college years
and beyond - at $1.8 billion for 2003. Given President Bush's announcement last
Wednesday that he plans to expand the standardized testing mandated under the
No Child Left Behind Act - which includes a commitment to &quot;ensuring that
every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes the
eighth grade&quot; - the market for assessments is certain to grow.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

Beyond the SAT, the Educational Testing Service controls a
separate boutique market of higher-level tests like the Graduate Record
Examination and the Graduate Management Admission Test. Despite its nonprofit
status, it is the world's largest private educational testing and measurement
organization. The company administers and scores nearly 25 million tests
annually in more than 180 countries, and posted $825 million in revenues for
fiscal year 2004.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In an extensive report, &quot;Tech Tonic:
Towards a New Literacy of Technology,&quot; published in September, the Alliance for
Childhood, a nonprofit group that is often skeptical of technology in schools,
was critical of the new test. &quot;For E.T.S., this is part of a broader
global plan to develop and promote international technology literacy standards,
and then offer countries around the world a chance to buy a full array of
assessment products and services that can be used to implement their
standards,&quot; the report said.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But if critics see this as an unjustified entry
into an already littered field of standardized tests, the company argues that
the information age - and a new culture of accountability - demand it.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I think there's always that tension,&quot;
said Teresa Egan, the project manager who is steering the test's release at the
end of this month. &quot;People feel there's too much testing across the board
now. Or they ask whether we are focusing so much time on testing that students
don't have time for other educational experiences.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;But the public wants accountability.
People want to ensure that colleges are actually preparing students for the
future - the future being an information society.&quot; The technology test will
cost colleges around $25 a student - discounted to $20 for institutions that
sign up during the first testing period. Students will take the Web-based exam
in classrooms or instruction labs, logging on with access codes purchased by
their schools. Scores in the first round will be aggregated for each
institution; the company aims to make scoring for individual students available
in 2006.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 2001, the testing company brought together an
international consortium of educators, technology specialists and government
representatives to begin defining the core characteristics of information
consumption at the college level.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Knowing where and how to find information, they
agreed, was just the beginning. Interpreting, sorting, evaluating, manipulating
and repackaging information in dozens of forms from thousands of sources - as
well as having a fundamental understanding of the legal and ethical uses of
digital materials - are also important components.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Critical thinking is a central aspect of
the new economy,&quot; said Robert B. Reich, the secretary of labor in the Clinton
administration, who is now a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University. Professor
Reich is also the author of the 1991 book &quot;Work of Nations: Preparing
Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism,&quot; which provided a something of a
touchstone for the information literacy movement. &quot;Our high school
curricula are locked into an industrial age that may have only a tangential
relationship to the information age,&quot; he said in an interview.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To the extent that efforts like the new
technology test help reshape curriculums along these lines, Mr. Reich said,
they probably will help.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; According to Ms. Egan of the Educational Testing
Service, the test is also fun.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;Can you help me find a good source of
products and gifts designed for left-handers?&quot; reads a sample question
from a fictitious office manager. &quot;I'd like someplace that offers a wide
range of merchandise with product guarantees - also that has an online catalog
and online ordering. Discounts would also be a plus.&quot;

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fictitious colleagues might then make
suggestions via e-mail, and the test taker might also get input by instant
message from people using screen names like SkyDiver, JJJunior and TVJunkie.
The test taker would be asked to consider the various sources and suggestions,
and to rank them by relevance to the original request.

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Other parts of the test ask students to do
everything from the seemingly mundane (like sorting e-mail messages into
appropriate folders) to head-scratching tasks like &quot;reordering a table to
maximize efficiency in two tasks with incompatible requirements,&quot;
according to a brochure.</span></font></p>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Asked if she had taken the test herself, Ms.
Egan responded, &quot;What a cruel question.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &quot;I took it earlier on, when there was no
way to produce a score from it. But I knew myself that there was a lot I needed
to learn.&quot;

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'>&nbsp;</span></font></p>

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