Three big corporations, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, are throwing their combined weight into a project which they hope will take learning assessment beyond multiple choice tests, reports the Seattle P-I.

New assessment tools — designed to measure information and communication technologies skills — could potentially ask students to get information from the Web and decide whether that information was trustworthy, or to work collaboratively to solve a problem.

The three-year project will be led by Barry McGaw, director of the Melbourne Research Institute at the University of Melbourne.  McGaw will oversee five working groups, one of which will be led by John Bransford, a professor at the University of Washington.

The project has been endorsed by several major international assessment organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Association of the Evaluation of Educational Achievement who plan to refer to the findings when they create benchmarks.

Anoop Gupta, a Microsoft vice president who oversees the education product group, said Microsoft decided to partner on the project because “it is an important strategic area for us as employers.”  He said that information and communication technologies were an important part of 21st century skill sets in need of being measured.

The idea of measuring these skill sets is not new — librarians have been advocating for and developing tools for the assessment of “information literacy” for years, and the academic world has increasingly recognized the need to teach and assess both information and communication technologies.  It’s good to see some major corporations putting resources into the effort.

Photo by Extra Ketchup.  Creative Commons license.

OCLC, the schools of Information at Syracuse and the University of Washington, and numerous libraries are exploring the possibility of building a search engine using the expertise of librarians from around the globe.  The idea is that when users enter a search term, results will be weighted towards sites most often referred to by librarians at major institutions, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus.

Called Reference Extract, it is envisioned as a web search engine, like Google, Yahoo and MSN, only with more credibility. A $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is supporting the planning proposal.

One of the proposal’s leaders is Michael B. Eisenberg, dean emeritus and professor at Washington’s information school, who has called for people to submit ideas on the project’s Web site.  “Google is everywhere, easy to use, and somewhat effective in offering useful results.  But, I can’t always trust the results,” he wrote.  “Is there a way to improve on that?”  The idea is to cull and promote recommendations from tens of thousands of librarians around the world.  The technical architecture that would power the search engine is as yet unknown.

The Google Maps team has been very busy this week introducing new features, including walking directions, a redesign of the printed directions page, the redesigned Google Maps interface, and the Avoid Tolls feature.

To get an overview of the changes, see the well-made brief video tutorial.

I read about this source at Librarian in Black and have been enjoying exploring its features.

FictionDB has a searchable database of 50,000 book lists and 200,000 titles which can be searched free in a number of ways.  Simple title, author, genre, and series searches should be expected, but the addition of summaries, reviews, new release information, and links to other sites of interest to fiction readers are bonuses.

FictionDB also has a subscription option for $29.99/year that opens “premium” features such as advanced searching, your own bookshelf, wishlist, archive, and access to book buying and selling.  You can sign up for a free trial to see what works best for your situation.  Check out the FAQ and the Blog.

I spotted this post at Library Bytes and was particularly interested in the idea of today’s set of literacies for our information age.  I think a lot of educational institutions recognize these skills as necessary, but the traditional classroom structure fights against an environment that fosters them.

Students today (and other learners), live in a world of connectivity, community, sharing and collaborating –  especially because of technology – but inside the classroom too often find themselves locked out of that world.  The video Learning to Change-Changing to Learn talks about the issues.  Photo by jnxyz.  Creative Commons license.

What learners need to know (4:06 on video):

• how to find information,
• how to validate it,
• how to synthesize it,
• how to leverage it,
• how to communicate it,
• how to collaborate with it,
• how to problem solve with it.

ACRL’s College & Research Libraries News (May,2008), has published an article about, and with links to, online digital collections at universities, libraries, the Library of Congress, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other organizations.

The efforts in recent years by libraries, archives, and historical societies to digitize collections have created incredible visual resources that inclue many subject areas and media formats.  Many focus on education, such as the Education by Design site in Broward County, Florida, (shown).

“Researchers now have access to millions of primary materials from any Internet-accessible computer, which would otherwise require an in-person visit to the physical collection,” states author Anne Blecksmith. 

Please note that although the collections in the article may include digital images of primary materials in the public domain, they must be properly credited when used for educational purposes, and inclusion in a publication or other media project requires permission from the copyright holder.  [via Resource Shelf]

Five must-have tools for online workers
The folks at Read/WriteWeb are accustomed to working full-time online. 

They lend the fruits of their experience to those less so by calling attention to “some tools that would make their lives online much more effective and efficient.”

Among the essential tools are a multi-service IM client, cross platform screensharing tool, a custom search engine, a startpage and a blog with contact information.

As they note, “The difference between working with powerful tools and working without them is huge.”  Check out the post for details.

Tips for dealing with information overload
Google Blogoscoped asked a number of folks at various companies and organizations for tips on how they handle information overload.  A number of tips – some expected, some not – are worth reading, and comments with your own tips are invited at the site. 

Some people admit that they really aren’t coping very well, but I like this one from Matt Cutts, at Google.  “At the beginning of the day, write down the 1-2 things you really want to accomplish that day.  That will help keep you on track.” 

So sensible.  It’s too easy to get side-tracked by all the stuff that comes at you during the day and you end up not getting anywhere.  Of course, you also have to remain open to recognizing the need to refocus your energy based on the latest information.  So hard.

 Everyday Mysteries is a great site for education, research and just plain fun, says askSam.  Did you ever wonder if you could fry an egg on the sidewalk if it’s hot enough?  Want to know how GPS works?  Check out questions –and answers – at the Library of Congresss Everyday Mysteries site.

Everyday Mysteries will help you get the answers to many of life’s most interesting questions through scientific inquiry.  It will also introduce you to the Library of Congress’ rich collections in science and technology.

All of the questions presented on the Web site were asked by researchers and answered by librarians from the Library’s Science Reference Services.  Search for an answer, browse by categories or ask a question.

Bill Gates is expected to announce a five-year, $235.5 million investment in Microsoft’s Partners in Learning program today, according to the Seattle P-I.  The company is expanding the program beyond kindergarten through 12th grade to colleges and universities.  The new money will bring its total investment in the program to about $500 million over 10 years.

The goal of the program is to boost educational and economic opportunities, and collaboration among educators, specifically in areas with limited access to technology.  The initiative is involved in more than 100 countries.  Of course, the hope is also that those who become accustomed to using Microsoft’s products will continue to do so in the future.

Speculation is that Microsoft aims to fend off the Linux operating system and other open-source technologies in developing nations and the rest of the world.  One of the most prominent initiatives for computing in emerging markets, the One Laptop Per Child program, uses Linux but has been working with Microsoft to offer Windows XP, as well.

Microsoft says more than 90 million educators, students and policymakers have been affected by the Partners in Learning program in some way since its introduction in 2003.  With this latest investment, the company hopes to triple that number.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project was busy in the last month of 2007.  Here are links to three reports published then, the most recent one titled Information Searches That Solve Problems.

The study found that for help with a variety of common problems, more people turn to the internet than consult experts or family members to provide information and resources, and that members of Gen Y are the leading users of libraries for help solving problems and in more general patronage.

For instance,

• 58% of those who had recently experienced one of those problems said they used the internet (at home, work, a public library or some other place) to get help
• 53% said they turned to professionals such as doctors, lawyers or financial experts
• 45% said they sought out friends and family members for advice and help

Although only 13% said they went to the public library, libraries drew visits by more than half of Americans (53%) in the past year for all kinds of purposes, and young adults in tech-loving Generation Y (age 18-30) were the most likely to use libraries for problem-solving information and in general patronage for any purpose.

Another Pew study, Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency found that Internet users are becoming more aware of their “digital footprint.”  47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.  Only 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

It seems that most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information.

A study of Teens and Social Media: The use of social media gains a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media noted that content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.

Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys, however, do dominate one area – posting of video content online.

The survey found that content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content.  Almost half (47%) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89% of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least “some of the time.”