Hi folks,
I have been trying to follow up a story on the BBC News website: " Tests flummox trainee teachers"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4793655.stm
which describes how trainee teachers were failing basic tests in numeracy, literacy and information technology.
The above URL gives some examples of test questions in literacy and numeracy, but none from ICT.
So I followed a link on the right of the story "Sample ICT test" at
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ ict/practicematerial.aspx
[all one line]
to see how I would get on. Until I read the "Minimum specifications". Now I'm flummoxed too. And depressed.
Best wishes to all, Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 16-Aug-06 Time: 00:01:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On 8/16/06, Ted Harding Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicematerial.asp...
to see how I would get on. Until I read the "Minimum specifications". Now I'm flummoxed too. And depressed.
So they produce the test in Flash 7 (which is vaguely multiplatform), and then ship a Windows only binary which we're supposed to trust.
Anyone care to extract the .swf?
Tim.
So they produce the test in Flash 7 (which is vaguely multiplatform), and then ship a Windows only binary which we're supposed to trust.
Anyone care to extract the .swf?
If I am really bored later I might, but for now you can entertain yourselves by looking at the non interactive versions of the tests here.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicematerial/dow...
On Wed, Aug 16, 2006 at 09:40:41AM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
So they produce the test in Flash 7 (which is vaguely multiplatform), and then ship a Windows only binary which we're supposed to trust.
Anyone care to extract the .swf?
If I am really bored later I might, but for now you can entertain yourselves by looking at the non interactive versions of the tests here.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicematerial/dow...
Yeah - I looked at one of those earlier and just thought "god, the threshold is *really* low, innit". Then, I suppose it has to be simple enough that their IT department can just about cope with it ;)
Cheers,
On 16-Aug-06 Brett Parker wrote:
On Wed, Aug 16, 2006 at 09:40:41AM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
So they produce the test in Flash 7 (which is vaguely multiplatform), and then ship a Windows only binary which we're supposed to trust.
Anyone care to extract the .swf?
If I am really bored later I might, but for now you can entertain yourselves by looking at the non interactive versions of the tests here.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicemateria l/downloads.aspx
Yeah - I looked at one of those earlier and just thought "god, the threshold is *really* low, innit". Then, I suppose it has to be simple enough that their IT department can just about cope with it ;)
Thanks for posting the URL to the non-interactive versions, Wayne. I had looked for these myself, but didn't spot the link.
I've now read them. Dismal.
But I wonder why I missed the link. Have I failed my ICT??
I must now attempt Task 5:
5.1 Set up ECT kit 5.2 Reset brain to factory defaults 5.3 Apply for job at TDA
Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 16-Aug-06 Time: 10:10:19 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On 16-Aug-06 Wayne Stallwood wrote:
If I am really bored later I might, but for now you can entertain yourselves by looking at the non interactive versions of the tests here.
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicematerial /downloads.aspx
Inspired by the above (am I bored?) I tracked down the non-interactive page for the literacy tests:
http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/literacy/ litbenchmark/literacybenchmark2.aspx
[all one line]
and then chose "spelling" from the "See Also" on the right. I there read:
Spelling section
In this task you are presented with 10 short sentences each with a missing word. To complete the task you will need to listen to the missing word and then spell the missing word to complete the sentence. NB - as this is the non-interactive version of the benchmark, the missing words are not audible.
YAY!!!
Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 16-Aug-06 Time: 10:20:56 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On Wed, 2006-08-16 at 09:07 +0100, Tim Green wrote:
So they produce the test in Flash 7 (which is vaguely multiplatform), and then ship a Windows only binary which we're supposed to trust.
Anyone care to extract the .swf?
I am not sure it uses flash (My Windows VM is flash free but it still runs)
To be honest it is not that exciting (you could have guessed that) Just emulates a fictional computer and gets you to perform the tasks as outlined in the non-interactive version, giving you brief instructions on the way.
On the plus side the actual tests aren't completely Microsoft centric For example the fake web browser has a "Bookmarks" menu...yay
Ted wrote:
"Sample ICT test" at http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ict/practicematerial.asp...
I've emailed the address on the page to ask when non-MS version will appear, among other things.
I don't expect a reply, but I'll report any to main.
Regards,
-
Brett Parker -
mjr＠phonecoop.coop -
Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk -
Tim Green -
Wayne Stallwood