January 2007

ETS Finds that Many Kids Lack Information Literacy

A recent report from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) indicates that in spite of their incredible access to technology, many of today's students lack solid information literacy skills – that is, the ability to use technology to do thorough and effective research.

The study tested 6,300 high school and college students on their abilities to do three things: identify trustworthy and useful information; manage overabundant information; and communicate information effectively. According to ETS' Mary Ann Zaborowski, the study found that many students are over-reliant on search engines such as Google. These students, she says, often type in a key word and then regard their first search result as the authoritative and definitive source of information. Furthermore, only about 40% of students ever entered multiple search terms when researching a topic, and only 44% could properly identify a statement that captured the demands of any given assignment.
 
"We have a kind of wake-up call that's being presented to all of us at this time," said Zaborowski. "[Today's children] are more well-versed than any of us who preceded them in terms of how to use these [technological] devices. But where there’s a startling gap is in their ability to cognitively apply this technology in meaningful ways."

Some school systems, including Baltimore County, are already trying to address this serious problem. Baltimore County has developed a web-based curriculum with online research models for elementary, middle and high school level students. "We feel that this is an effective strategy in integrating information literacy… within the context of the curriculum," says Della Curtis of the Baltimore County Public Schools.

To learn more about this issue, check out the ETS report at http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/prelimfindings.html and/or visit the Baltimore County Public Schools site at http://www.bcps.org.

 

Gamasutra Announces its Most Important Games of 2006

It's the end of the year and everyone is looking back, giving out awards and compiling top ten lists. Gaming site Gamasutra recently jumped on the annual "best-of" bandwagon by revealing its list of the Most Important Games of 2006.

The list is based on a survey of Gamasutra's readership, largely comprised of game industry professionals, educators and students, and is meant to recognize innovative games that advance "the state of the art of the industry." Many different genres, including adventure, first-person shooters and problem-solving games, were represented in Gamasutra’s final list. The big winner, though, was Nintendo's package of Wii Sports games, all of which are played with Nintendo's groundbreaking new game controller. (To learn more about the controller – which actually gets gamers out of their chairs and waving their arms – see October’s In the News ).

According to Gamasutra's editors, what makes Wii Sports games special is their ability to engage folks who are not traditional gamers. Features Editor Frank Cifaldi cited his own personal experience: "My mother, who hung up her gaming gloves for good after beating Super Mario Bros. 3…, swearing to never play a video game again, practically snagged the Wii remote from me last Thanksgiving, after watching me bowl in WiiSports. If that's not revolutionary, I don't know what is."

To learn about the other games that made the list, visit Gamasutra.

Alpha. Beta. Cyber?! The Ancient Greeks and Ancient Computers

When we think about the history of the computer, most of us don't go back beyond NASA's wall-sized contraptions from the 1960s. Well, it turns out that the ancient Greeks used something like a computer and that it was far more complex than scientists originally thought.

The Antikythera Mechanism, as the computing device is known, was originally discovered in 1900 by a Greek sponge diver off the coast of the island Antikythera. The machine, which dates back to the first century B.C, was originally contained in a wooden box the size of a shoebox and was comprised of dials on the outside and a set of interconnected gear wheels within. Twentieth-century scientists were able to determine that the Antikythera Mechanism was a kind of astronomical computer that helped the Greeks predict the positions of the sun and moon. Now, using new X-ray and scanning technology, scientists have been able to unlock even more secrets from this first ancient "computer."

"It was the pocket calculator of its time," says astronomer John Seiradakis, part of the team that's studied the Antikythera Mechanism. Adds another astronomer on the team, Mike Edmunds, "We have used the latest technology available to understand this mechanism, yet the technological quality in this mechanism puts us to shame. If the ancient Greeks made this, what else could they do?"

And what could this amazing machine do? Scientists now believe that it could not only predict the positions of the moon and sun, but also Venus, Mercury and very possibly Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. It could also accurately predict eclipses, to the hour. And some folks think you might have been able to use it to play Donkey Kong!

And while much more is now known about the Antikythera Mechanism, some mysteries do still remain. Astronomer Edmunds says that while we can better understand what the device did, "we will not be able to answer the question of what the mechanism was for."

Learn more about the "clockwork computer" at http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1337165.

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