IT Fluency: Resources Outside NC State
Collected below are a variety of resources gathered in an effort to see what other schools have been doing to help their students become savvy users of Information Technology. The collection is not intended as an official repository, and NC State does not endorse the contents of the pages linked from this site.
Special thanks to the individuals who responded to queries via a number of mailing lists to send information about their institution's efforts.
- Literature
- College/University/Association pages
- Tools -- software for assessment, testing, etc.
- Other useful links -- E.g. NC Department of Public Instruction's Computer Skills Test for HS students
Studies and Literature Related to IT Fluency
The National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board organized a Committee on Information Technology Literacy. They published an extensive report in 1999, "Being Fluent with Information Technology", where they outline three kinds of knowledge required to be fluent with IT (what they call FITness): contemporary skills, foundational concepts, and intellectual capabilities. This study serves as the basis for many schools' current efforts to promote IT fluency.http://stills.nap.edu/html/beingfluent/ (html version of the report)http://books.nap.edu/catalog/6482.html (book available for sale, or read online as Open Book or HTML)
Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy
The Educational Testing Service brought together an international panel to study existing and emerging Information and Communication Technologies and their relationship to literacy. They developed a framework on which to build a measure of ICT literacy. The study contains useful definitions and advocates an integrated technology curriculum.
Higher Education Research Institute
Among other research, HERI produces the annual College Freshman survey providing comparative data among institutions.
Article in Educause Quarterly, (No. 4, 2001), by Sharon Fass McEuen. As part of Associated Colleges of the South Information Fluency project, the author uses the NRC's FITness guidelines to create a self assessment for students at Southwestern University. Among other findings, the study lends credence to the fact that a percentage of students are coming into college without the basic skills needed.
One of the papers, presented for the NRC workshop January 14-15, 1998, that preceded the FITness report mentioned above. Written by Stephen B. Gilbert.
Article in Educause Quarterly, (No. 4, 2000), by Anne Scrivener Agee and Dee Ann Holisky. Describes the unique partnership the Department of Information Technology has developed with the College of Arts and Sciences to create the very successful Technology Across the Curriculum program.
This group of liberal arts colleges has an active and extensive Information Fluency (IF) program that includes funding a variety of project proposals from constinuent schools. The association received significant Mellon Foundation grants to help promote information fluency on member campuses. The group's definition of IF bridges the gap between Information Literacy and IT Fluency.
Calvin is incorporating a new core course on research and information technology into its curriculum to address the issues of information and IT fluency.
START, Student Technology, Assessment, Resources and Training program. "Students have the opportunity to assess their current technical skill level, participate in hands on workshops and computer-based training provided by Element K and University developed modules" in a variety of areas. I am currently uncertain whether there are any requirements for students to go through the START program.
http://www.depauw.edu/it/start/
The also have an Information Technology Associates Program
http://www.depauw.edu/it/itap/
Duke University's Computer and Information Technology Intensive Environment (CITIE) is an initiative that brings together support and training for students as well as faculty.
http://www.citie.duke.edu/
Florida International University's
gathering of Information Literacy links
(Note that the links focus on information literacy, not IT literacy.)
Much work has been done by the Assoc. of College and Research Libraries
(http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html) and the ALA on the topic of Information Literacy.
GMU has made big strides in promoting the concept of technology across the curriculum (TAC) and has established ten goals for student IT proficiency. They also have what appears to be a strong instructional technology support network for students, faculty and staff.
A helpful summary of some GMU's programs and resources is provided on Educause's Effective Practices site.
First year students are required to show competency in two areas -- first level technology skills by the end of the first semester, and information seeking skills by the end of their second semester.
Liberty has been assessing new and transfer students' competency in a number of areas since 1998. They are in the midst of evaluating their assessment techniques.
Computer competency requirement required of all freshmen entering since 1999. Students take a competency test to fulfill the requirement.
http://www.stedwards.edu/it_dept/competency/index.html
St. Mary's has created a TLTR (Teaching Learning Technology Roundtable) task force to work on Student FITness. In particular, the IT Fluency Rubric is helpful
http://www.saintmarys.edu/%7Epsmith/fluency.html
The University of Dayton is in the process of determining graduation requirements for both Information Literacy and IT Literacy. They will be incorporating a formal assessment mechanism for all students, and faculty/staff, and then provide additional training opportunities to meet the literacy requirements.
University of New Brunswick has a "FITness program" with completely online assessment and tutorials for becoming fluent in IT. I can't find info on whether students/faculty/staff are required or merely encouraged to go through the course. Uses WebCT for course delivery.
The university has created UWired, a forum at UW that attempts to promote- innovation in teaching and learning with technology tools;-+- fluency in information technology;- new ways for students and faculty to access technology-enabled tools and resources.They have several student support initiatives and have held a class on Fluency with IT and have assessments of the class and other projects available.http://www.washington.edu/uwired/about/index.shtml
Debra Revere at UW has some student development resources, including an assessment and self-directed tutorials
Desktop and Internet Literacy Checklist (the combined questions from the self-assessment)
WSU's Student Technology Orientation program provides online modules to help introduce students "to the most frequently used technology and computing resources" used on campus.
http://www.wsu.edu/STO/
Tools for Assessment, Surveying, Training
American Society for Training and Development has several tools to help measure needs and manage training activity.
Course Technology has a number of assessment tools including the popular SAM, a performance-based test for MS Office.
MeasureUp is one of several vendors supplying assessment, training and certification programs. University of Dayton plans to use MeasureUp for some of their competency assessment and certification.
A leader in "e-Learning", many schools are using some of SmartForce's training modules and assessment tools.
TracDat, by Nuventive, is a database tool geared at assisting the institutional and departmental assessment process, particularly surrounding the accreditation process.
An assessment tool "that measures technology applications and problem-solving skills within the technology environment. Designed to evaluate skills in students across the curriculum, the five modules may be taken individually or in clusters. The test is vendor-neutral and delivered on-line in proctored computer labs on campuses across the country."
A tool created here at NC State, but being used by a number of schools, to do course homework assignments, testing and surveying.
Other Useful Resources related to our project
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Computer Skills Development and Testing
North Carolina now requires high school graduates to have passed a computer skills and proficiency test. The test is first administered in the eighth grade.They have developed curricular components for throughout K-12 to help students develop IT competency: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/computer.skills/index.htmlThey provide information on the testing program, including practice tests:
Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment
NC State University hosts an excellent collection of links dealing with assessment in higher education. It includes links to a variety of general resources as well as a list of individual institutions' assessment-related pages.
While not dealing specifically with IT Fluency, the Pew Internet Project has produced some very useful data on Internet use. A study that is particularly useful for higher education is The Internet Goes to College: How Students are Living in the Future with Today's Technology which provides statistics about students' general, academic and social uses of the Internet.
The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University developed this 1998 report, and while it doesn't focus solely on IT Fluency, it does advocate the use of technology creatively to improve teaching and learning. The proliferation of information makes it imperative that students be taught how to make judgements about the value of information. They argue this is provided by exposure to scholars, not just by learning how to use technology.
Please contact Stan North Martin (stan_martin@ncsu.edu) if you know of other resources that should be linked from this page.
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Content last modified May 13, 2003 by snm
Page last modified
October 19, 2006
by cawalker