As conceived in this framework, ICT literacy includes both cognitive and technical proficiency. For example, in order to successfully perform an ICT task such as searching the Internet to find and compare treatment options for a medical condition, an individual must apply reading and problem solving skills (cognitive) and be able to access information on the Internet using a search engine (technical). While cognitive and technical proficiencies are both necessary components of ICT literacy, each is a distinct domain. Cognitive and technical proficiency each represent independent domains in which the associated knowledge and skills interact to influence ICT literacy. An example is shown below in Figure 3.

One would expect that individuals with low cognitive proficiency but high technical proficiency (cell 'D') would be able to perform particular technical tasks in which they had been trained. However, they would probably not possess the kind of generalizable skills or knowledge that could help them work with new applications or perform novel tasks and they would most likely not be able to acquire such skills independently. People with high cognitive proficiency but low technical proficiency (cell 'A') would require technical training (and possibly motivation or practice time) in order to develop ICT proficiency but would be expected to do so and once engaged with ICT would be able to acquire new skills and knowledge quickly and independently.

The representation of ICT literacy shown in Figure 2 provides an organizational scheme for both developing large-scale assessments or individual tests and evaluating existing measures. The framework leaves open the possibility that different constituencies could develop different assessments or individual tests for different purposes by focusing on various parts of the framework itself and by defining the kinds of evidence that might be associated with each. For the purposes of discussion, we present three types of assessments that might be developed using the ICT literacy framework: holistic, component and diagnostic. Each is described in turn below. Additional detail about possible assessment tasks can be found in Appendices A, B and C. These sample tasks are also available in a more interactive form at www.ets.org/research/ictliteracy/index.html.