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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/4/06 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
August 27, 2006 UWGB to test how tech-savvy its students are Assessment looks at how information from Internet is used By Kelly McBride
But for all its expressways and onramps, users who lack the right navigation tools can find themselves hopelessly lost or broken down entirely.
Now the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay hopes to find out if college students are taking wrong turns by helping to launch an assessment that gets at how students use digital information — and how they misuse it.
"It's really all about trying to figure out, what is the world of information?" said Kathy Pletcher, associate provost for information services at UWGB. "When I have a question, how do I identify relevant information? ... How do I gather that and how do I present it?"
UWGB is partnering with the Educational Testing Service — the company that administers the SAT — to offer a new kind of assessment. Dubbed the Information and Communication Technology Assessment, it tests students on digital information in real-world scenarios, said Terry Egan, ETS ICT Literacy Assessment Project Manager.
"(College faculty) have expected these students, really, to arrive at the college level having these ICT literacy skills, having grown up with the technology," Egan said. "What they have found is that usually is not true. Students have been using technology mainly for entertainment.
"They have found that when they would assign a research paper ... (students) really don't have the skill set developed that would allow them to know how to find information and know how to evaluate those sources."
No assessment date has been set, but Pletcher said about 100 UWGB students will take the test this year, likely during first semester.
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