Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC's Being Fluent with Information Technology:

"This paper will discuss the NRC report in light of current thinking regarding literacy and computer literacy.

The authors use the term fluency rather than literacy, giving the following brief explanation, which this paper will discuss later:

Generally, computer literacy has acquired a skills connotation, implying competency with a few of today’s computer applications, such as word processing and email. Literacy is too modest a goal in the presence of rapid change, because it lacks the necessary staying power. As the technology changes by leaps and bounds, existing skills become antiquated and there is no migration path to new skills. . . . To adapt to changes in the technology . . . involves learning sufficient foundational material to enable one to acquire new skills independently after one’s formal education is complete. This requirement of a deeper understanding than is implied by the rudimentary term computer literacy motivated the committee to adopt fluency as a term connoting a higher level of competency. (NRC, 1999, p. 2)

The committee also decided not to argue that information technology fluency was required of everyone, but to focus instead on college graduates, whom it equated with “individuals who want to be able to use information technology effectively” (p. viii).

Fluency with information technology, the report concludes, requires three types of knowledge: contemporary skills, foundational concepts, and intellectual capabilities (p 2). Details of these three areas are in table 1."
- posted by Yik Sheng @ 7:01 PM