Take the Internet Literacy Test

From Educational Testing Service (ETS), comes a new test – the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. ETS is the non-profit organization that puts out the SAT, GRE, GMAT and other standardized testing services.

Using a series of scenarios and tasks, the ICT Literacy Assessment is designed to measure a student's "ability to use critical-thinking skills to solve problems within a technological environment."

Also check out the story on the subject at MSNBC:

"Colleges Look to Test Internet IQ"
MSNBC, July 15, 2005

Students apply to college online, e-mail their papers to their professors and, when they want to be cheeky, pass notes in class by text-messaging.

"They're real comfortable instant-messaging, downloading MP3 files. They're less comfortable using technology in ways that require real critical thinking," says Teresa Egan of the Educational Testing Service.

More interesting information at Culture & Context.

Online lectures from Princeton

From the Chronicle of Higher Education …

Princeton University has launched the University channel, an online repository of video footage of academic lectures. The service serves as a central location for finding lectures and presentations from colleges and universities that submit materials. Donna Liu, executive director of the project, noted that although some institutions provide Webcasts of important lectures, frequently tapings of lectures are purely for archival purposes and cannot be easily located or viewed later. The focus of the channel initially will be lectures on public policy and international affairs, and several institutions have already submitted content for the site. Topics might be expanded in the future. The University Channel is also working with cable companies to broadcast some of the lectures over cable networks. The new channel is similar in concept to a project at the University of Washington called the Research Channel, which focuses on scientific and medical research.