The Oxford English Dictionary defines "literacy" as "acquainted with letters or literature; educated, instructed, learned". So, by extension, "computer literacy" would mean acquainted with computers, or educated, instructed and learned with respect to computers.

    I am unaware of any widely accepted "official" definition for computer literacy. The common understanding of the term has been an ability to understand why and when to use a computer and how to use it. The specific skills and abilities that one had to demonstrate to be labeled "computer literate" have changed markedly over the years — more significantly, whether the how or the why was more important has changed tremendously. As recently as twenty years ago, any use of a computer required a thorough knowledge and understanding of programming logic and language: large scale mainframe computers brought access to a select few who could afford the access or who worked in a research environment, but this access still required an ability to program. Personal computers ("PC"s) brought affordable access to many more people, but the initial versions of PCs still required programming or programming-like skills. It was the advent of Apple Macintosh and Windows-based computers that made computers accessible to the general population, and it is important to understand what it was that made them more accessible: since the users of these computers could now control them via a "point and click" interface, rather than the traditional "command line" system that required formal programming skills, a much larger user community now existed, one large enough to make the development of prepackaged computer applications "for the masses" cost effective.

    Prior to the arrival of "point and click" technology, being computer literate meant that you knew and understood the following, at a minimum: at least one formal programming language; how to use that language to rigorously solve problems; at least one formal operating system so you could control the machine; how to recognize when to use a computer to solve a problem; how to adapt what you had done in the past to what you had to do in the present; how to choose which software "tools" to apply to your solution. In short, you needed quite an array of skills, you had to have all of them, and you had to have an understanding of how all of those skills fit together. Once "point and click" took over, the need to know formal programming languages disappeared (prepackaged application tools started appearing on the market), and the need to know a formal operating system also disappeared (replaced by "select from a list of options," i.e., "point [to your choice] and click"). What remains from the original list of computer literacy attributes is what I see as an effective current definition for computer literacy: when to use a computer, how to choose appropriate tools, how to adapt to changing environments. The "technical" aspect of the skill set has been radically diminished, leaving the focus on understanding what to do and when to do it.

    Why are computers so much more accessible and useful than they were just a short time ago? Cost is certainly a major factor, but I think that the major reason is that the requisite technical skill set has changed so significantly. The original technical skills that were required (programming languages and operating system syntax) have been replaced by a different set (what button to click, which set of options to examine). Formal programming is a difficult skill to master - ask anyone who has ever tried to write a non-trivial program. Twenty years ago it took a person about two years in a college-level curriculum to be adequately trained in formal programming: today it still takes about two years. Twenty years ago the only way to use the computer was to write your own program (off-the-shelf software was still a gleam in Bill Gates' eye), while today anyone who is able to read can, with a minimal amount of training, figure out how to use most application packages.

    To most people, computer software has continued to evolve at what looks like a very rapid rate. A new release of the Windows operating system comes out every couple of years, your favorite application tool (word processor, game, statistics package) seems to get upgraded every eighteen months, etc. A lot of people assume that a new release or an upgrade implies a major change in the tool and how to use it, but that is an assumption that is very rarely correct. What we get for our upgrade dollar is a tool that is cosmetically different, has a few new bells and whistles, and is essentially still the same in terms of its basic functionalities. If we understand the nature of the tool and what it is designed to do, we shouldn't need any training (or retraining) to figure out how to do with the new version those things that we had already been doing with the old version.

    Does this imply that computer-based skills are trivial or always simple to acquire? Definitely not: becoming a legitimate "power user" for a specific software package takes a lot of time: time spent in reading, experimenting, and learning from your mistakes. If your work requires that level of expertise, then the time it takes to acquire it is well spent; if the job you have your eye on requires that level of knowledge, then you don't have much choice about acquiring it. It does bear pointing out, however, that your efforts have been expended to acquire specific skills (e.g., keystrokes, shortcuts, etc.), skills that may well be irrelevant if you have to move to another package designed to do similar things. When it comes to computers, some skills are undeniably important, but they are short-term — they will need to be upgraded with depressing frequency. On the other hand, while an understanding of concepts may not in itself get you a specific job or directly solve a specific problem, such an understanding provides a long-term, stable foundation upon which genuine skills must be based.

    As I've stated, computers and computer software are a constantly evolving area. If we wish to become and remain computer literate, we need to realize that an understanding of what computers can and cannot do, of when to use them and when to avoid them, and of how our use of computers affects us and those around us, is much more important than "knowing" (memorizing?) keystrokes or option lists. Simplistically, what we need to do remains stable, how to do it is dynamic. Our package-specific technical knowledge will be (at least) partially obsolete in a few months when a new release of our software comes out; it will be almost useless if we change jobs (or schools) and have to learn another package because an Information Technology manager prefers that package and requires everyone to use it under the rubric of "compatibility". If we focus on basic concepts in our initial training, and understand the relationship between those concepts and how they can be represented by the technology, then we are computer literate today, and next month, and next year; if we focus instead on specific skills at the expense of concepts and understanding, we are computer-skilled, we can probably get a job based on those skills, and our knowledge will be out of date within a year or two, at most. Becoming computer literate is something we should have to do only once.

    So, just what is computer literacy? Aside from pointing out that it isn't only computer-related skills, I've managed so far in this discussion to avoid being specific. This topic is the subject of the second half of this essay.

    Having surveyed the changing perceptions of what "computer literacy" has meant as computers and computer software have evolved, let me now attempt to provide some specifics.

    Computer literacy has two major components: an understanding of computer applications, computer hardware, and social and ethical issues influenced by computers; and sufficient skills or knowledge of application software to be functional in a computer-enabled environment.

    Currently, someone who is computer literate is expected to know certain software: the minimal list of applications includes an operating system (e.g., Windows or Mackintosh O.S.), a word processor (such as Word or WordPerfect), a mail application (Eudora, Pine or Simeon), and a browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer). Many jobs also require some knowledge of a spreadsheet (Excel). The ability to use these applications to perform standard straightforward tasks is taken for granted, as is the ability to learn new versions of these applications. For example, it isn't enough to know exactly how to create a footnote in Microsoft Word — one is expected to understand the process well enough to be able to quickly adapt this Word-specific knowledge to any other comparable word processor. Knowing how to use one specific word processor is a skill that provides immediate benefits — one can use that word processor to write a paper or a report, create a simple presentation, etc. Understanding the concepts behind the specific keystrokes and/or mouse clicks makes it possible to adapt to a different word processor without formal training and without undue anxiety. In a world of constant software evolution and job mobility, adaptation is a critical ability.

    Understanding how the major components of a computer perform and interact is also part of being computer literate. It wasn't long ago that computers were considered expensive "luxury" items — now it is hard to imagine getting through our academic and professional lives without them. Since acquiring a computer is almost inevitable, and upgrading or replacing it is equally inevitable, it is important to understand what the various components do and how they interact: without this knowledge, we cannot make an informed decision about whether to purchase or upgrade, how much money we need to spend, or what specific components we need to emphasize. As an example, many people have the misconception that if you buy a computer with a CPU that is twice a fast as your current CPU, the new computer will run your software in half the time — but the reality is that for most common software applications, you will see an improvement of between 5% and 10%. While computer hardware components continue to improve and evolve, the basic interactions between them haven't changed substantially in the last twenty years, and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future — if you can figure out what you need in a computer today, in five years you will still be able to figure out what you need.

    Social and ethical issues influenced by computers include such diverse topics as security (e.g., computer viruses), privacy, information integrity, electronic commerce and expert systems (e.g., on-line medical diagnostic systems). For example, being aware of what can and does happen every time we use a computer that is connected to a network (such as SalemNet or the World Wide Web) is very important. Properly informed users can fairly easily protect themselves against most attempts to invade their privacy, but someone who is unaware of how software works, particularly communications software, is likely to be unaware that there is even the potential for privacy issues to come up. In general, being aware of potential problems is what is important: if we weigh the risks and decide that "preventive measures" are necessary, there is a software package, a Web site or an expert who can show us how to proceed.

    Skills with respect to computer applications should be a direct outgrowth of specific needs, how those needs are addressed by a class of applications, and finally how those needs are dealt with or implemented in the specific application that is being used. Having learned that "Shift/F7" will center a line of text in WordPerfect is useful as long as you're using WordPerfect; if you try to transfer that specific skill to Word, you have a problem (in Word, "Shift/F7" brings up the Thesaurus!). On the other hand, being aware that centering a line is a specific type of justification, and that all word processors have a button or menu item that deals with justification and will let you choose the type you need, is much more valuable in the long run:   you have not merely a specific skill applicable to WordPerfect but knowledge that can be applied in any word processor.

    The main aspect of computer literacy that I focused on in the first part of this essay was the evolutionary and revolutionary nature of computers and computer software, and that aspect has come up again in the preceding paragraphs. The field of computers and computer software is very dynamic in the sense that the tools that we use to interact with computers (the application packages) are constantly evolving, and the evolution causes change, sometimes radical change, in how we perform everyday tasks. However, we can also note that the basic reason that we use computers hasn't changed much since computers were first created — computers are great at storing and retrieving data very rapidly and very accurately. While it appears that computer software keeps changing, it's important to note that the underlying functionality of that software remains quite stable — it is still intended to allow us to store, organize and retrieve data and information. Knowing and understanding basic concepts and principles allows a person to be functional in a computer-enabled environment today and tomorrow. In the era of the World Wide Web, where so much data and information are available at the click of a mouse, being computer literate is an essential component of being information literate, which is in turn a key attribute of someone who has learned how to learn.

     The two parts of this essay have previously appeared in slightly different form in the November 1998 and May 1999 issues of ASpect, the newsletter of the School of Arts and Sciences at Salem State College.

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