Investigating computer and information literacy

From Facebook, Twitter or Yammer to barcode scanners at the checkout to the latest Angry Birds app, information and communication technology (ICT) has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, work, shop and play. Similarly, educators, researchers and policy makers are grappling with the ways in which ICT is changing learning and schooling. Students learn to use ICT and use ICT to learn, and that has led in many educational systems not only to an interest in computer and information literacy, but also to the assessment of computer and information literacy as a component of monitoring student achievement.

Sound assessments of computer and information literacy depend on a uniform framework and empirically based set of outcome standards, and these are at the core of the International Study of Computer and Information Literacy (ICILS).

The ICILS project conducted by ACER and others for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) currently involves the education systems of 21 countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, the Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey.

There are three questions that ICILS seeks to answer in terms of students’ use of computers as information tools, rather than simply their capacity to understand information presented from a range of sources.

First, what variations exist between countries, and within countries, in student computer and information literacy?

Second, what aspects of schools and education systems are related to student achievement in computer and information literacy in terms of: the general approach to computer and information literacy education; school and teaching practices regarding the use of technologies in computer and information literacy; teacher attitudes to, and proficiency in, using computers; access to ICT in schools; and teacher professional development and school delivery of computer and information literacy programs?

Third, what characteristics of students’ backgrounds, and levels of access to, familiarity with and self-reported proficiency in using computers, are related to student achievement in computer and information literacy? Following on from this, how do these characteristics differ among and within countries; to what extent does measured computer and information literacy correlate with self-reported proficiency in ICT; and does the strength of this correlation differ among countries and groups of students?

ICILS is a big collaborative project. Working with the 21 National Centres of the participating countries are five organisations involved in preparing the ICILS instruments, namely: the IEA Secretariat, coordinating translation and translation verification processes; cApStAn, the translation verification contractor; ACER, developing the source instruments, reviewing national adaptations and coordinating software development; Sonet Systems, developing the testing software and running the software translation system and control systems; and the IEA Data Processing and Research Centre, handling data management and the online survey systems software for questionnaires for teachers, principals and ICT coordinators.

Representatives from all participating countries have extensive input into the shape of the project. So far, there have been four face-to-face meetings in the two years the project has been running, and true to the assessment area, extensive ICT-based communication as well. The early focus of this collaboration has been on shaping the instruments to be used and ensuring they are true to the domain as well as meeting the needs of participants. More recently, work in ICILS has focussed more on operational matters in the lead up to the 2012 field trial.

The field trial is scheduled to be completed in June 2012 and this will be followed by a review of the data analyses from the field trial and selection of instrument contents for the main survey, as well as operational planning for the main survey later this year.

The main survey will follow in 2013, and detailed answers to the research questions will be available in 2014 when the report is released.

Find out more:
Further information about ICILS is available from <icils.acer.edu.au>