According to the New York Times, ETS has developed a test to measure a college student’s level of information literacy in order to determine how well schools are preparing students for a world where IT literacy is increasingly necessary. The test is designed to show how well a student is able to use critical thinking skills in order to find the best research materials. Some critics doubt that information literacy can be accurately measured (most notably the author of the critique of information literacy in the Chronicle of Education last week). I don’t know how easy it is to accurately test any concept for all people across the board, but if it can do a decent job of measuring info literacy, it could be a valuable tool in determining the effectiveness of college information literacy courses. It would certainly be useful to really understand the impact of information literacy curricula in order to best serve the students. Because, frankly, learning to think critically was the most important thing I got out of college.
