| In recent years, the view that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is vital in K–12 education has become widespread. ICT use in schools has increased and various professional bodies have set ICT standards for students and teachers. Questions abound as to whether teachers have the skills that their students are expected to attain. Schools of education are under pressure to produce teachers who are able to effectively integrate technology into their teaching. However, most teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare teachers in ICT, nor assess candidates relative to ICT standards.; The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop a computerized system that assesses ICT declarative and procedural knowledge and provides a profile to the participant, (2) to gather baseline information on the ICT literacy of undergraduate Education students, and (3) to determine whether there are characteristics associated with students with greater ICT expertise.; This study tested 713 undergraduate students at the start of an educational technology course and found generally weak ICT literacy. This implies that teacher education programs should continue to take measures to increase the computer technical competency of students, as part of preparing pre-service teachers to teach with technology. A multiple regression analysis revealed that ICT literacy can be positively predicted by: variety of previous computer experience, amount of post-secondary computer-related studies, amount of ICT exposure in K–12 schooling (higher for more recent high school graduates), ownership of a home computer, general academic ability, gender (male), and computer self-efficacy. |
