January 21, 2003

Professor chairs panel at White House conference

California State University, Sacramento communications professor Barbara O'Connor will chair one of two sessions this week at a White House conference on technological literacy.

The Jan. 24 conference will feature leaders in business, education and public policy, including Shelley Hymes, director of the White House Office of the 21st Century Workforce and Bruce P. Mehlman, assistant secretary of the Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy.

O'Connor's session will be on strategies for achieving "21st century literacy" - broad-based skills in information and communication technologies.

O'Connor recently led efforts to develop a framework for testing technological literacy on behalf of Educational Testing Service, which has developed widely used tests such as the SAT and the Graduate Record Examinations. The eventual test will be much like current international tests used to compare students in math and science competency. ETS hopes to begin administering the tests in 2004.

O'Connor can be reached at (916) 278-6415 or boc@csus.edu. Additional media assistance is available by contacting CSUS public affairs at (916) 278-6156. More information about the conference is at www.ictliteracy.info.

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