Introduction

As computers become increasingly important to all professional fields and aspects of daily life, the reliance on computer technology training increases at a faster rate. Computer literacy training, a large part of technology training, is intended to train students who are generally unfamiliar with computers to use a computer for useful tasks. This includes courses given to non-technical college students and courses given to people already working professionally.

The normal purpose of computer literacy classes is to train students to use a particular program(s) to perform particular tasks. These students become skilled only in the tasks laid out in such a course. However, more advanced knowledge of those programs, or of new programs (or even new versions of the same program), often require students to take another training class.

So these classes are basically creating an create an unnecessary dependency on themselves, due to their narrow and specific methods of teaching. Because they only teach the students a few specific tasks, and only with one or a few certain program(s), they are often unable to use their knowledge in a different setting, e.g. using a different but similar program. These students are often just as confused as they were before they took the course. Notably, the fears and misconceptions that are characteristic of computer illiteracy are still there. The method of simple repetition which these classes often use to teach computers is not the way in which advanced computer users become familiar with them.

Proposed Report

This project intends to show that this current method of teaching computer literacy is not meeting the true goals of computer literacy. I will show that computer literacy training can be redesigned to eliminate many of the problems stated above, and can make continued computer learning, both in formal settings (i.e. classes) as well as informal settings (i.e. friendly advice), more educational, useful, and successful.

Research done so far suggests that there are some people in the field of computer training that are interested in increasing their training's effectiveness, such as designing experimental classes to judge the ability of people to learn from different teaching styles. Experimentation is also being done in software design to find the best way for computer users to learn how to use software, or to make computers "easier to use" (which is really the opposite of teaching computer literacy). However, professionals in this field seem satisfied with the results of the current format, because the courses succeed in meeting their narrow goals. In contrast, I intend to show that the focus of these introductory courses miss the target of computer literacy, and may even affect the students ability to learn computers in a slightly negative way.

The paper will suggest that the methods of computer literacy training be redesigned. Students learning computers for the first time should be made familiar with basic computer concepts, to understand how a computer environment (e.g. Windows 95) behaves. With a basic familiarization of how a computer works, plus a familiarization of the customs and habits of a certain computer environment, the ability to learn and become talented with various software should increase. Such basic concepts are often overlooked in traditional computer literacy (often in the interests of time). Many students taking these classes remain just as afraid of computers as they were before, and others may eventually learn this basic knowledge the hard way, on their own and over a longer period of time. If basic computer concepts had been taught in the computer literacy classes which they have taken, they may find future computer experiences much easier.

Audience Analysis

This paper is directed towards the developers of computer literacy courses across the country. Since it has been determined that there is not only no common definition of what computer literacy is, but also no scholarly or professional organization which is concentrated on cross-discipline introductory training, there is no particular organization which this paper can truly be addressed to. There is also no common definition of who these people are.

Members of this audience include the developers of the COM1105 course at Northeastern. These people include Prof. Raoul Smith, supervisor of the course, Richard Rasala, associate dean of Computer Science, and Larry Finkelstein, dean of Computer Science.

Preliminary Bibliography

Granger, M. J. & Lippert, S. K. (1998). Preparing future technology users. Journal of End User Computing, Vol. 10, No. 3, 27-31.

Jones, M. C. & Pearson, R. A. (1996). Developing an instrument to measure computer literacy. Journal of Research on Computers in Education, 29, 17-28.

Wiedenbeck, S. & Zila, P. L. (1997). Hands-on practice in learning to use software: A comparison of exercise, exploration, and combined formats. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 4, No.2, 169-196.

Wolfe, B. (1998). Achieving computer literacy. SIGUCCS Newsletter, Summer 1998, 29-32.