What is literacy exactly? How about computer literacy? Kate Williams attempted to theorize on the definitions and the different view points about literacy. She did a great job at providing different viewpoints for her different thesis about literacy.
One statement she made was that authors like to use the term fluency rather than literacy because literacy is too modest of a term for something that includes being able to keep up with the rapid change that IT provides. I can understand this. I would rather be called fluent in Latin rather than literate in Latin because saying a person is fluent implies that that person has put time and effort in studying whatever it is that they are fluent in.
Ms. Williams also stated that research committees prefer to look at college grads because college graduates want to be able to use IT to their best. But what about high school students? While I was in high school I had a want to be able to use computer software as best I could. It was rammed into my head that once I got into college and the workforce I would need to be "fluent" in IT.
Her thesis that literacy is social seems to be a true observation. People will choose to become literate if it suits their needs or interests. For example, having a Facebook and learning to understand how it works would be a huge part of a teenager's computer use. While a senior citizen may not have any need or interest to learn about Facebook.
It is interesting that researchers believe that computer literacy could bring up standardized scores in secondary schools. I never thought that understanding computers well could affect the knowledge of children enough to bring up math, science, and English scores. For one, my high school forced every student from seventh grade up to take at least two computer classes. We learned the whole Microsoft software system as well as CAD. While my junior class had the highest overall ACT scores in the state of Michigan, I never thought to link the fact that maybe all those boring computer classes had a part in our ACT scores or MEAP scores.
One statement she made was that authors like to use the term fluency rather than literacy because literacy is too modest of a term for something that includes being able to keep up with the rapid change that IT provides. I can understand this. I would rather be called fluent in Latin rather than literate in Latin because saying a person is fluent implies that that person has put time and effort in studying whatever it is that they are fluent in.
Ms. Williams also stated that research committees prefer to look at college grads because college graduates want to be able to use IT to their best. But what about high school students? While I was in high school I had a want to be able to use computer software as best I could. It was rammed into my head that once I got into college and the workforce I would need to be "fluent" in IT.
Her thesis that literacy is social seems to be a true observation. People will choose to become literate if it suits their needs or interests. For example, having a Facebook and learning to understand how it works would be a huge part of a teenager's computer use. While a senior citizen may not have any need or interest to learn about Facebook.
It is interesting that researchers believe that computer literacy could bring up standardized scores in secondary schools. I never thought that understanding computers well could affect the knowledge of children enough to bring up math, science, and English scores. For one, my high school forced every student from seventh grade up to take at least two computer classes. We learned the whole Microsoft software system as well as CAD. While my junior class had the highest overall ACT scores in the state of Michigan, I never thought to link the fact that maybe all those boring computer classes had a part in our ACT scores or MEAP scores.
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