Assessing Students' Ability to Use Computers: theoretical considerations for practical research

The assessment of students' ability to use computers should be a central tenet of educational computing research, but until now most studies have relied on vague and imprecise definitions of what actually constitutes being able to use a computer. More often than not researchers are content to accept a self-evaluation from the student, often in the form of a response to a single question, and even the more elaborate attempts to measure ability have proved too narrow or ill-focused to be of lasting value. This paper argues that before attempting to assess computer ability the overall nature of the concept should first be considered. From this, a theoretical framework of ability can then be constructed on which to base subsequent practical assessment. The paper also raises methodological issues to be considered by future research into students' use of computers.     

TALENT AND INTELLIGENCE

Specific outstanding abilities are found at all levels of general cognitive functioning, and are independent of it Furthermore, people who are gifted in a particular area but differ widely in general intelligence nevertheless seem to utilise similar mental processes and structures. Thus idiot‐savant musicians remember, as well as generate, musical patterns derived from familiar musical rules, and their ability is not based on rote memory. Calendri‐cal calculators use the rules and structures on which the Gregorian Calendar is based to calculate dates rapidly. Children with low intelligence but outstanding drawing ability need less visual information for the identification of pictures than those who cannot draw but have high IQ's.     

A perpetual motion machine: The preserved digital scholarly record

• Digital preservation will never be a solved problem: it needs constant reinvention, and is going to become harder over time.
• Scholarship is changing and this is affecting what needs to be preserved and what preservation means to the future of knowledge discovery.
• The diversification of outputs means that knowledge exists in a network of contextual metadata, data, software, standards and publications—requiring multilateral management of this complex knowledge graph.
• Preservation demands new skills, technologies and resources from librarians, publishers, funders and institutions—and more joined-up thinking about archiving.