Posted By ITRCeducation
Network : 10-APR-10
The fundamental purpose of higher
education is the preparation of students for their
future careers. If graduates of today and tomorrow
are to flourish in the modern, fastpaced high-tech
world, they must be information and technology
literate. The means of acquiring these skills must
be imbedded in student learning and be part and
parcel of their develop and maintain a robust
information technology infrastructure. Unfortunately
no consensus exists as to what the label “computer
literate” should imply. The difficulty in both
defining computer literacy and designing a
satisfactory computer literacy course is evident by
both the frequency of change and experimentation
occurring at many institutions and by the tons of
textbooks that exist for such a course. It seems as
though every educator has some opinion about
“computer literacy.”
The need for computer literacy and the requirements
of it are undergoing a significant paradigm shift
over the last decade. Only once before, when
personal computers made many software applications
available to the general public, did the idea of
computer literacy change significantly. The idea of
thin clients using Internet-based applications did
not succeed in the past partly because of sluggish
dial-up connections. So, PC-based productivity
software flourished. Now high speed (DSL and cable
modem) and wireless connections, and the ubiquity of
a variety of communication technologies are
prompting significant changes.
We now find that students, as they enter college,
are proficient in many of the applications
considered essential by a functional definition of
computer literacy. This is forcing information
system faculties to ask the question: “What do we
teach in computer literacy courses now?” Many
faculty members in the colleges of Business seem
unsure of what should be taught and why. Many
faculty members argue that this course should not
even be offered at the college level because high
schools throughout the country offered similar
courses. Many college students now enter schools of
Business with one or more high school credits in
courses that teach Microsoft Office or similar
software. We propose to conduct an exploratory
survey to determine the extent to which the colleges
of Business continue to offer computer literacy
courses and whether they foresee a need for this
course in the future. We propose to survey 400
colleges nation-wide to determine how many business
colleges require computer literacy courses, what
they are currently covering in these courses, and
what they are expecting to cover in the future. Most
of the Business Colleges/Universities are expecting
students to demonstrate proficiency with Office
productivity software and has offered courses
designed to enhance skills with programs such as
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.
Pc's In Our Society - Since nearly
99% of all jobs available in Advance countries like
America have something that deals with computers. .
The reason computer literacy is so important in a
society of this day and age is because there are so
many opportunities available to people who know and
understand computers, and the people who don’t
understand this technology are setting themselves up
for failure. According to a recent study by Business
Weekly it is stated that 96% of all employees in
America have either used or will use some form of
computers within the next few years. That being said
it is hard to imagine entering the working world not
knowing anything about how to use a computer or how
to run and, or navigate basic applications such as
Microsoft’s Windows, Microsoft’s Office, and how to
use an email account.
Business Weekly also notes that computers are by no
means just a fad but they are here to stay, and it
is important that we adapt to them if we want to be
successful not only at our jobs but also throughout
our careers.
Programming engages students
Programming has real-world applications that have
relevance to kids' lives. Instead of labeling their
enthusiasm for computers as disruptive or aberrant
behavior, we should harness it as an educational
tool. By integrating computer literacy into school
curriculum from an early age, we would give students
a learning experience that more accurately reflects
the modern world around them.
Equally important, mainstreaming the teaching of
programming would shed the antisocial stigma
associated with computer literacy. Girls in
particular would be much more likely to take an
interest in computing if doing so wasn't the social
equivalent of joining the Chess Club. Even if they
didn't go on to careers in IT, the basic skills they
would learn would be applicable later in life to
everything from Excel spreadsheets to
troubleshooting system crashes.
Where traditional math problems can be
unforgiving, programming languages like Python or
JavaScript offer students interactive environments
that encourage them to explore and experiment. The
immediate feedback they receive when they solve
problems gives them individual encouragement and
positive reinforcement -- things that textbooks
alone can't provide.
The problem isn't that computers don't fit with the
standard educational curriculum. The problem is that
the curriculum hasn't evolved to incorporate the
realities of the Internet Age.