9.06.2006

Internet literacy

Even though it sometimes seems that undergraduates have a facility with technology that borders on zen (think text messaging), it turns out that for most, their Internet research skills are quite weak.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting on an ETS survey of 10,000 high school and college students that showed that almost half have very limited knowledge of how to use the Internet to perform high-quality research.

ETS' conclusion: schools need to pay them $27-33 per student to assess their research skills, and more importantly, begin teaching web-based and electronic research skills early, in middle and high schools.

Personally, I think we could probably take it as given that students could benefit from direction (I know I could), and skip the transfers to ETS. However, much thanks to them for pointing out the problem.

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