BizEd

JanFeb2006

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D ATA B I T Training Teachers to Teach Intel and the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley have partnered to help faculty in emerging technology hotbeds teach entrepreneurship more effectively. Intel and Haas have created a new course, "Technology Entrepreneur - ship—Theory to Practice." The course will be taught by fac- ulty from the school's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Inno - vation. The course, which began in August, will be held at five global venues in Brazil, China, India, Mex - ico and Russia through December 2006. Attending the program will be 15 to 25 faculty members from several colleges and universities in those regions. "By providing the know-how to Research firm IDC predicts PC sales in the Asia Pacific region to increase by more than 12 percent in 2006, to more than 44.9 million units. Notebook sales in the region have also been sizzling, increasing by 35.7 percent in 2005 alone. "Technology Entre - preneurship" will offer a teaching curriculum, classroom exercises, and teach budding entrepreneurs how to commercialize new technologies and innovations, this program has the ability to kick-start economic engines whose potential has lain dormant until now," says Jerome Engel, executive director of the Lester Center. Engel also leads the new program. ETS Launches Revised ICT Literacy Assessment TOOLS OF THE TRADE This month, the Educational Testing Service will make avail- able a revised version of its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. The previous version had been available in 2005. The revised, advanced level assessment, which colleges and universities pilot tested last fall, is designed for rising juniors and seniors entering upper-level coursework. A simulation-based testing program, the ICT Literacy Assessment is 75 minutes long and comprises 14 four-minute and one 15-minute task. The assessment measures seven skills—the abilities to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information. Test takers are asked to perform tasks such as extracting informa- tion from a database, developing a spread- sheet, and composing an e-mail based on research findings. The test was created in response to a growing outcry for more technologically proficient college graduates, explains Theresa Egan, project manager with ETS. The organization worked with seven universities in 2003 and 2004 to design an assessment that would enable colleges to evaluate stu- dents' technological proficiency and ensure their readiness for the workforce or advanced education. Today's students are comfortable using technology for entertainment, but they aren't as comfortable using it for academic and business purposes, says Egan. "It's shocking that some freshmen have never attached a file to an e-mail. Many don't know how to do an effective Web search or make judgments as to whether information online is authoritative or an advertisement," she says. Educators have long assumed that, because students have grown up with technology, they also have these basic skills. That, very often, is not the case, Egan emphasizes. The advanced version of the ICT Literacy Assessment provides institutions with score data files that they can aggregate according to their own analysis needs. It also provides stu- dents with scores that compare their individual performances to other test takers' performances, as well as a description of their proficiency in each of the seven skill sets. The goal, says Egan, is to ensure that students have the technological skills they need to be effective employees in the modern workplace. For more information and a free online demonstration, visit www.ets.org/ictliteracy. s z BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 49 other tools that university professors need to teach the basics of entrepre- neurship to engineers and scientists. Profes sors who complete the pro- gram can then go and share what they've learned with the rest of their school's faculty. The goal, says Engel, is to create innovative busi- nesspeople in these emerging mar- kets who have cross-disciplinary skills, technical expertise, and the ability to seize market opportunities.

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