Computer literacy is the knowledge and ability to use computers and technology efficiently. Computer literacy can also refer to the comfort level someone has with using computer programs and other applications that are associated with computers. Another valuable component of computer literacy is knowing how computers work and operate. Having basic computer skills is a significant asset in the
developed countriesThe term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. Which criteria, and which countries are classified as being developed, is a contentious issue and there is fierce debate about this. Economic criteria have tended to dominate...
.
The precise definition of "computer literacy" can vary from group to group. Generally,
literateLiteracy is a concept claimed and defined by a range of different theoretical fields. In everyday terms, "literacy" is typically described as the ability to read and write...
(in the realm of
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s) connotes one who can read any arbitrary book in their native language[s], looking up new words as they are exposed to them. Likewise, an experienced computer professional may consider the ability to self-teach (i.e. to learn arbitrary new programs or tasks as they are encountered) to be central to computer literacy. In common discourse, however, "computer literate" often connotes little more than the ability to use several very specific
applicationsApplication software is a computer program that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user's work. In other words, it is the subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a...
(usually
Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , Atari ST , SCO UNIX, OS/2, and Microsoft...
, Microsoft
Internet ExplorerWindows Internet Explorer , is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995...
, and
Microsoft OutlookMicrosoft Office Outlook or Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft. The 2007 version is available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite....
) for certain very well-defined simple tasks, largely by
roteRote learning is a learning technique which avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on memorization. The major practice involved in rote learning is learning by repetition. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it.Rote...
. (This is analogous to a child claiming that they "can read" because they have rote-memorized several small children's books. Real problems can arise when such a "computer literate" person encounters a new program for the first time, and large degrees of "hand-holding" will likely be required.) Being "literate" and "functional" are generally taken to mean the same thing.
Social implications
The level of computer literacy one must achieve to gain an advantage over others depends both on the society one is in and one's place in the
social hierarchySocial hierarchy is a multi-tiered pyramid-like social or functional structure having an apex as the centralization of power. The term can also be applied to animal societies, but the term dominance hierarchy is preferred most times...
. Prior to the development of the first computers in the 1950s, the word computer referred to a person who could count, calculate, compute. The fear of some educators today is that computer training in schools will serve only to train data-entry clerks of the next generation, low level workers of the
knowledge economyThe knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy...
. On the other hand, some hope that enhanced computer literacy will enable a new generation of cultural producers to make meanings and circulate those in the public sphere. The wildfire of cultural production associated with sites such as
YoutubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
seems to support this notion.
Different countries have different needs for computer literate people due to their society standards and level of
technologyTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
. The world's
digital divideThe term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively...
is now an uneven one with knowledge nodes such as India disrupting old North/South dichotomies of knowledge and power.
Computer literacy in the first world
Computer literacy is considered to be a very important skill to possess while in the
first worldThe terms First World, Second World, and Third World were used to divide nations into three broad categories. The three terms did not arise simultaneously. After World War II, people began to speak of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries as two major blocs, often using such terms as the "Western...
. Employers want their workers to have basic computer skills because their company becomes ever more dependent on computers. Many companies try to use computers to help run their company faster and cheaper.
Computers are just as common as pen and paper for writing, especially among
youthYouth is the period between childhood and adulthood, described as the period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity and early adulthood. Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary...
. For many applications - especially communicating - computers are preferred over pen, paper, and typewriters because of their ability to duplicate and retain information and
ease of editing.
As personal computers become common-place and they become more powerful, the concept of computer literacy is moving beyond basic functionality to more powerful applications under the heading of
multimedia literacyMultimedia literacy is a new aspect of literacy that is being recognized as technology expands the way people communicate. The concept of Literacy emerged as a measure of the ability to read and write. In modern context, the word means reading and writing at a level adequate for written communication...
.
Of course, arguments about computers being common-place in the first world assume that everyone in the first world has equal access to the latest forms of technology. However, there is a pronounced
digital divideThe term digital divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively...
that separates both physical access to technology and the ability to use that technology effectively.
Computer education
Where computers are widespread, they are also a part of
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
. Computers are used in schools for many applications such as writing papers or searching the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
for information. Computer skills are also a subject being specifically taught in many schools, especially from adolescence onward - when the ability to make abstractions forms.
One problematic element of many (though not all) "computer literacy" or computer education programs is that they may resort too heavily on rote
memorizationMemorization or memorizing is the process of committing something to memory. The act of memorization is often a deliberate mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall items such as experiences, names, appointments, addresses, telephone numbers, lists, stories, poems,...
. Students may be taught, for example, how to perform several common functions (e.g.: Open a file, Save a file, Quit the program) in very specific ways, using one specific version of one specific program. When a graduate of such a program encounters a competing program, or even a different version of the same program, they may be confused or even frightened by the differences from what they learned. This is one reason why major computer and software firms such as
Apple ComputerApple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics and computer software products. The company's best-known hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone...
and
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
consider the
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
al market important: The often time-limited computer education provided in schools most often lends itself to rote memorization, creating a sort of
vendor lock-inIn economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs...
effect whereby graduates are afraid to switch to competing computer systems.
Graduates of computer education programs based around rote memorization may be heard asking things such as "just tell me where to click", and may need to rely upon paper notes for some computing tasks. (Example: A note on the monitor reading "Hit 'enter' after power up.") Many such users may need tremendous amounts of "hand-holding" even after years or decades of daily computer use. (This can be especially frustrating for experienced computer users, who are accustomed to figuring out computers largely on their own.) The primary factor preventing such functionally computer illiterate users from self-educating may simply be fear (of losing data through doing the "wrong thing") or lack of motivation; in any case, more technically oriented friends and relatives often find themselves pressed into service as "free tech support" for such users.
In addition to classes, there are many How-to books that cover various aspects of computer training, such as the popular 'For Dummies' series. There are also many websites that devote themselves to this task, such as
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet. Such tutorials often aim at gradually boosting readers' confidence, while teaching them how to troubleshoot computers, fix security issues, set up networks, and use software.
Aspects of computer literacy
Aspects of computer literacy include:
- what is a computer
- what are its limitations
- what is a program (not necessarily how to program)
- what is an algorithm
- what is computable
- what a computer cannot do
- why computers cannot produce random numbers
- some seemingly simple problems are not
- concurrency and issues with shared data
- Reduce computer literacy needs with Desktop Search
- all computers have the same computing ability with differences in memory capacity and speed
- performance depends on more than CPU clock speed
- understanding the concept of stored data
- what are the real causes of "computer errors"
- the implications of incorrect (buggy) programs
- the implications of using a program incorrectly (garbage in, garbage out)
- issues rising from distributed computing
- computer security
- trojan horse (computing)
A Trojan horse, or trojan for short, is a term used to describe malware that appears, to the user, to perform a desirable function but, in fact, facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system. The term comes from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.Trojan horses are not...
, computer virusA computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
, email spoofing, URL spoofing, phishingIn the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication...
, etc ...
- what to do when a security certificate is questioned
- password creation (how to avoid bad ones)
- social implications/aspects of computing
- Netiquette
Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary...
(or at least E-mail Etiquette)
- identifying urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, or urban tale, more properly a "'contemporary legend'" is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories thought to be factual by those circulating them...
s (and not forwarding them)
- critical assessment of internet sources
- criminal access to financial databases
- keyboarding, mousing (using input devices)
- plugging in and turning the computer on
- using/understanding user-interface elements (e.g., windows, menus, icons, buttons, etc.)
- Composing, editing and printing documents
- the ability to communicate with others using computers through electronic mail (email) or instant messaging
Instant messaging is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via devices connected over a network such as the Internet.-Overview:...
services
- managing and editing pictures (from cell phones, digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor....
s or even scanScan may refer to:Acronyms:*Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry , a psychiatric diagnostic tool developed by WHO*Shared Check Authorization Network , a database of bad check writers and collection agency for bad checks...
s)
- Opening files and recognizing different file types
- Multimedia literacy
Multimedia literacy is a new aspect of literacy that is being recognized as technology expands the way people communicate. The concept of Literacy emerged as a measure of the ability to read and write. In modern context, the word means reading and writing at a level adequate for written communication...
, including, but not limited to:
- making movies
- making sound files
- interactivity
- creating web pages
A higher order of computer literacy involves a user being able to adapt and learn new procedures through various means while using a computer.
Copyright and Fair Use Laws
Copyright and fairuse laws constitute a mammoth part of computer literacies.
It might be considered that the understanding of copyright and fair use is part of computer literacy. That is, a web author might be deprived of agency by not having knowledge of basic copyright and basic fair use. In the US, in order for an item to be copyrighted, it has to be original and fixed. If that is true, then copyright protection is automatic. Therefore, much of the content on the web is copyright protected.
Knowledge of fair use then becomes a crucial part of computer literacy, as to use under fair use is to use without copyright infringement. Fair use in the US is defined in section 107 of Title 17 of the copyright act. Four factors are relevant: basically, the purpose of the use, the amount used, the nature of the copyrighted work, and the impact of the use on the potential market of the copyright holder.
Therefore, in order to compose in digital networks, and in a fashion that is literate, one needs basic understanding of copyright and fair use.
Future
The ever-growing processing power of modern computers is used to present the user with an interface that requires minimal computer skills to operate. Modern software often utilizes buttons,
iconAn icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism...
s and elaborate pictographic interfaces to try to achieve a high level of usability. Most of the time people use computers, they do not realize that they are doing so. (Examples: ATMs, car navigation systems,
mobile phoneA mobile phone or mobile is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile telecommunications...
s,
microwave ovenA microwave oven, or a microwave, is a kitchen appliance that cooks or heats food by dielectric heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other polarized molecules within the food...
s...)
One of the major goals in
computer engineeringComputer Engineering is a discipline that combines both Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering...
is the construction of a natural language interface, possibly with
speech recognitionSpeech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to speech recognition where the recognition system is trained to a particular speaker - as is the case for most desktop recognition software, hence there is an aspect of speaker recognition,...
, body language recognition and automatic visualisation. This would eliminate the need for computer literacy in everyday work and life in areas where such machines are available. An example of a futuristic Natural Language Interface can be found throughout the
Star TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series.The original Star Trek was an American television series, created by Gene Roddenberry, which debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons, following the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Federation...
series, where characters simply tell the computer what they want using ordinary
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
External links