Smart Tools

Steps to Your School’s ICT Assessment

So your school already has a computer laboratory. And your students already know how to use search engines, and visit sites like Yahoo! Mail, Friendster or YouTube. But have you taken the time to assess your students’ Information and Communications Technology (ICT) proficiency?

What is ICT proficiency?

ICT proficiency is actually a person’s capability to use digital technology, communication tools and networks to solve information problems. Skills on using technology to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information are what matters.

Where does ICT proficiency focus on?

  1. Technical skills - can use ICT
  2. Cognitive skills - can create solutions using information
  3. Social or Ethical understanding - can distinguish limitations, ethical considerations and the like

As you can see, while it is important that you and your students learn how to create documents and presentation files, our ever-increasing reliance on technology mandates schools to keep up with the changes. Students might be able to research using search engines, but without ICT skills, they cannot evaluate how valid the information they gather is.

Even education ministries of Ireland, New Zealand and Vietnam recognize ICT as a core competency in order to succeed in today’s global economy. Schools like California State University have already integrated technology into their curriculum.

So how can students be evaluated in terms of their obtained ICT skills in light of this situation?

The Educational Testing Service in the US in 2001 named seven areas that need to be assessed to measure ICT proficiency:

  1. Define - use ICT tools to identify and represent a need for information
  2. Access - collect or get information from digital environments
  3. Manage - organize and classify information
  4. Integrate - summarize, compare and contrast information from sources using ICT tools
  5. Evaluate - determine credentials, objectivity and timeliness of information
  6. Create - design, apply and adapt information in ICT environments
  7. Communicate - properly communicate in ICT environments

Students can be assessed by evaluating their abilities to perform cognitive and information management tasks in an ethical and legal way with the use of technology. With this, schools can also assess their own effectiveness in imparting ICT skills.

Moreover, here are questions to ask:

  • Are ICT-literate teachers available for both management and curriculum purposes?
  • Have updated and capable ICT tools been made available and accessible to you and your students?
  • Do you invite out-of-school ICT experts to share their experiences and knowledge?
  • Are steps taken to ensure sharing of experience, expertise and software between other schools and private enterprises?
  • Is there proper on-site technical support?
  • Have you already identified realistic targets and limits to your ICT program?

Determining all these things could point your students’ ICT education into a whole new direction -- to a brighter future with meaningful ICT-proficiency that can aid them in a global world.

Sources:

“ICT literacy definition.” Retrieved June 17, 2008 from
http://www.usd.ac.id/06/publ_dosen/wisnu_ti/ict.pdf
“ICT Literacy: Equipping students to succeed in an information-rich, technology-based society.” Retrieved June 17, 2008 from http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/ICT_Literacy/pdf/ICT_Equipping_Students_to_Succeed.pdf
“The UK and Hong Kong Experience.” Retrieved June 17, 2008 from http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=368&layout=html

(Published 23 June 2008, Smart Communications, Inc.)