The problem with a curriculum that sacrifices concepts and ideas for specific product training is the lack of preparation for change and education in the basic principles and concepts that will carry forward through the life of many software products. To add the Internet to a course of study and remove the major issues of privacy and ethics would seem to be short sighted at best and a contradiction at worst. To decrease the focus on the history of information systems, as Y2K becomes a billion-dollar problem for government and business users of information systems, appears to be potentially a step backwards.
This report has succeeded, we hope, in identifying the nature of computer literacy and how it has changed over time. The major problem appears to be an increasing demand on educators to add more and more to what our students need to know without the time and resources to do so. Computer literacy cannot increase from a three to a six to a nine credit hour course as more and more topics and needs are identified over time. It appears that as we approach the new millennium we do need to include the personal productivity tools and the Internet to equip our students for both school and their life after graduation. If we can balance in-class contact hours (including hands-on use of computers) with outside class use of available technology resources we can hopefully fulfill the student needs. This would appear to be possible with a three credit hour course which includes approximately one half hands-on time.
It would seem that computer literacy is only a myth if educators allow the demand for personal productivity tool training to take all the available time and allow no time for principles and concepts in information technology.
Conclusions
The trend over the last few years appears to reflect the increased coupling of PPT (Personal Productivity Tools) including word-processing, spreadsheet analysis, database design with the use of the Internet for communications and research. This continuing trend has altered in a very significant way the education of college students in the area of information technology. The traditional information systems technology was primarily the effective centralized use of computers to provide solutions to a variety of business and informational needs. Computer literacy included some significant focus on the history of computer technology as well as the impact of computers on society and the ethical use of computers and the information that they make available. The concepts of computer hardware, software, data, and data communications were also included along with how data was represented and stored by a digital computer. Computer development was defined as a series of generations identified by specific hardware and software innovations. If there were a body of knowledge, which traditionally represented computer literacy, the above topics augmented with some introduction to the design and writing of computer programs would have been included.
With the introduction and widespread use of personal computers along with the associated software productivity tools, the applied definition of computer literacy has changed. Based upon the review of the course objectives and descriptions, the focus is on the ability to operate the devices and run the software with a minimum knowledge of principles and concepts despite what literacy is provided by the texts. This trend began and has continued for a variety of reasons including the following:
1.) the marketing efforts of the producers of the hardware and software products such as personal computers and Windows 95, 98, and now 2000 along with the Office suite of tools supported;
2.) the general impression among students and others that knowledge and skill in the use of the tools is the same as computer literacy;
3.) it is easier and more fun for the student to be trained in the use of the software tools than it is to learn the principles and concepts associated with information systems technology and,
4.) it is easier to train students in the use of software tools than to educate them in the concepts and principles of information systems.
Computer literacy is changing and will continue to change as the computer and its applications change. What was once a clearly stated cyclic process of learning computer operations, has been turned upside down. The cycle does not start with hardware, but with people and their ability to accomplish a task. The ability to use programs to produce a product (reports, new programs, graphics, research, etc.) seems to be far more important that who invented COBOL, or who designed the first microchip processor. Being computer literate is synonymous with being able to do something. The why portion seems to be forgotten.
Materials Used
Beekman, G. (1999). Computer confluence: exploring tomorrow s technology. (3rd ed). New York: Addison Wesley.
Hutchinson, S.E. & Sawyer, S.C. (1998). Computers, communications, and information: a user s introduction. (Rev. ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Long, L., & Long, N. (1999). Computers: brief edition. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
O Leary, T.J., & O Leary, L.I. (1999). Computing essentials 1999 2000. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Parsons, J.J., & Oja, D. (1998). Computer Concepts. (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Course Technology.
Parsons, J.J., Oja, D., & Low, S. (1999). Computers, technology, and society. (2nd ed). Cambridge: Course Technology.
Williams, B.K., Sawyer, S.C., & Hutchinson, S.E. (1999). Using information technology: a practical introduction to computers and communications (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.