Would You Pass the Information Literacy Test?

Grundelfeldsten writes "The Educational Testing Service -- the maker of the SAT and the GMAT -- has a new test called the Information and Communication literacy assessment. The test is designed to measure your "ability to make sense of the multiple streams of information that our computers throw at us every day," according to a Wired News reporter who just took it and described the process. The questions focus on completing tasks with Internet technologies, like using search engines efficiently and weeding out irrelevant email messages. Are such tasks really tied to technology? Or is "Information and Communication literacy" just a way for ETS to make money by selling more tests?"

Flash, popups, cookies

[alanw]

Don't bother trying the free demo if you don't have Flash, block popup windows, or
restrict cookies. That's some of the most pointless web site coding I've ever seen.

SAT + ETS = $$$

[foobsr]

This article underpins what you said ...

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/14_03/sat 143.shtml [rethinkingschools.org]

CC.

GMAT is not ETS

[krunk4ever]

just wanted to let you know. i think you might be thinking of GRE instead. GMAT is actually a trademark of Graduate Management Admission Council [gmac.com].

Re:GMAT is not ETS

[krunk4ever]

i guess i was wrong, GMAC and ETS works together for the GMAT.

source: http://www.mba.com/mba/CustomerService/ [mba.com]
GMAC® works with Educational Testing Service® (ETS®) in the administration of the GMAT.

but it sounds like GMAC makes the test, while ETS adminsiters it since they have testing locations all over the world.

Re:Honestly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, ETS claims to be a nonprofit organization: http://ets.org/aboutets/ [ets.org]

Re:tasks not technology

[Pionar]

You ask a school teacher why 40% of their budget is spent on microsoft products, and the only answer is: "That's what the industry uses, we'd be failing our kids if we taught them anything else". Hence our kids come out knowing MS Word, not word processing, MS Excel, not spreadsheets, and so on, and those kids will be buying MS software for life.

I'd like you to find a school teacher who says that 40% of their budget is spent on Microsoft products. If you do, I'll show you a liar. There's no way the entire software allocation makes up 40% of any school's budget. Indianapolis Public Schools estimates that their technology initiatives will require $17 million per year for the next four years. That's out of a half-billion dollar total budget. That's about 3.2%. All that information is available on their site [k12.in.us]. Most of that budget is spent on hardware and teaching, according to the last school board meeting I went to.

So, you're saying that it's impossible to learn word processing using Word? Buhhhh-loney. Word is a tool (and not just in the pejorative sense). The problem isn't that they're using Word, it's that they're not using it to properly teach the students the proper skills needed to use a general word processor. They're taking a hammer and showing kids how to use it as a screwdriver. Word is a great tool for word processing. It has too many features, but for the steal that schools get it for, it's great. Again, it's not the tool, it's the teaching. And, AFAIK, OOo doesn't integrate with EndNote [endnote.com], which many universities give their students for citation management.

When I took a "business computing" class in high school (1994 or 1995), we used WordPerfect for DOS. That thing was horrible. I had nightmares of white text with red highlights on blue screens. I cried every time the book called for setting tabs or creating a hanging indent.

Re:Universities NEED This Test

[Saeger]

Then talk to your professors.

Back when I was in college, I directly asked if I could skip a few CS classes (since I already knew the basics) and just show up to take the midterm and finals. They all said yes, and I passed to get the credit.

So not all professors are anal about mandatory attendance; they're the grown-ups.

ETS is a nonprofit

[selan]

It's hard to make the argument that the test is only a moneymaker when ETS does not actually profit. Which doesn't mean that they don't make money, but still....

Educational Testing Service is a

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization [guidestar.org] that provides national and international educational testing, measurement and research.