ETS Works to Develop Internet IQ Test
"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. But that doesn't necessarily mean they have a high Internet IQ."
'"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. "
"This test measures a skill as important as having mathematics and English skills when you come to the university," Roth said. "If you don't come to the university with it, you need to know that you are lacking some skills that educated people are expected to have." A preliminary version of the new test, the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment, was given to 3,300 Cal State students this spring to see how well it worked, i.e., testing the test. Individual scores aren't being tallied but campuses will be getting aggregate reports. Next year, the test is expected to be available for students to take on a voluntary basis." (AP,
Los Angeles Times)
Tech Remains Top Question On Parents' Minds"At a June orientation briefing for parents at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, talk turned quickly to technology. Five students had given up their Sunday afternoon to address issues that the fretful parents might have had about sending their children to college - finding a balance between study and fun, Greek life, campus safety, binge drinking. But many parents had other questions: which operating system is best; is a laptop or desktop preferable; how good is the wireless access; and is it necessary to bring a printer?"
"To be fair, the parents had already been through seminars on financial aid, and the discussion of campus health services was coming up. But technology remains one of the most daunting issues for parents and students who are preparing for college."
"We refer to a 'Net generation' these days," said Garland C. Elmore, associate vice president, dean of information technology and associate professor of informatics and communication at Indiana University in Indianapolis and Bloomington. "The Net generation grew up on computing."
"That's a wonderful thing. But it also means facing a raft of decisions - and expenses - that earlier classes did not have to face. " (Schwartz,
The New York Times)
Teachers Teach Tech Peer-to-Peer
"Eighty-one percent of students from grade school through high school use computers in their classrooms, according to a Census Bureau report, while there are now 4.4 computers for each public-school child in the United States, a 2003 report by the National Center for Education Statistics said. So it seems natural to assume that teachers use computers to enhance learning, but when it comes to computers, all assumptions are off."
"Even today, the majority of teachers are reluctant to use technology," said Robert McLaughlin, executive director of the National Institute for Community Innovations in Montpelier, Vt., who is trying to get cheaper access to the Internet for institutions as well as free technology tools for schools. "They don't regard it as something that will help them be more effective with their students."
"While studies show that technology can be used to improve academic performance, change is hard. Many school districts have a staff person who works solely on handling technology. In other districts, this job falls on a teacher. Not so long ago, these educators were often called upon by their peers to change a printer cartridge or unfreeze a frozen machine."
"But today, even the wariest teachers know how to reboot their machines. So the tech experts can now spend their time finding, developing and installing programs and projects that can make education interesting and fun for children. The harder part is convincing teachers to give the latest technology a whirl. " (Morris,
The New York Times)Georgia County Urged to "Return to Spender""It's time for Cobb County school officials to fulfill the original promise they made to the public two years ago, when voters overwhelmingly supported the district's stated goal of upgrading technology in all its schools."
"Last week, a Superior Court judge correctly determined that Cobb voters had not been asked to approve — and thus did not approve — the district's plans to supply take-home laptop computers to 55,000 of its students."
"Judge S. Lark Ingram ruled that the district's laptop initiative — unveiled a year after the vote and the subject of great controversy in the county — violated state law governing how special purpose sales taxes can be used. Ingram's ruling essentially held that the school district promoted the need for the 1 percent sales tax by promising major system-wide improvements, then decided after the vote to spend most of the $76 million the tax would generate to buy laptops for all middle and high school students in the system."
"The ruling should be a warning to school boards as well as municipal and county governments in Georgia that there are consequences to public statements they make regarding how special purpose sales taxes are to be spent."
"The best course for the board to take now is to give up on any appeal of Ingram's ruling. If the board feels the judge was overly restrictive on what elected officials can and can't do in spending special purpose sales tax money, it should ask the state school board association, or some other government group, to finance an appeal, not Cobb taxpayers." (Opinion,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution)Teacher Defends Laptop PlanJames Wentz, an elementary school teacher at Cheatham Hill Elementary School in Cobb County writes, "I heard the many arguments for and against the program." "It is easy for anybody on the outside looking in to state that laptops are not feasible for the system. To those "negaholics," I would like for them to think about how a teacher can prepare students for the world with only one computer sitting in the classroom. How can teachers expose students to the advantages of technology when he or she cannot get one of three wireless laptop carts (each holding a maximum of twenty laptops)? How can a student utilize his or her strengths in technology to overcome deficits when two or three students are forced to share a laptop?"
"We cannot hold our children to the same level of education we had "back in the day." I recall reading a story titled "The Saber-Tooth Tiger" in graduate school. It gives a vivid description of what happens to a society when it does not advance with the world. Many readers should search for the story on the Internet and reflect on its meaning. It seems that our society wants to live in the past and not prepare our students for a life beyond public school." (Opinion,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
