Computer Literacy… …not!

Why not CL?  It’s not my job…  If it were my job, I could do it better than you…  If you could do it better, it doesn’t matter…

It’s not my job…  An English professor spends 10 years learning the tools of her/his trade.  Computation is not naturally endemic to her/his work  Computation distracts from the actual work

It’s not my job… Computation History

If it were, I could do it better than you…  Computation takes place within the context of a discipline  It only makes sense within that context  To teach computation (even with examples) outside of that context doesn’t make sense

If it were, I could do it better than you…  Just-in-time learning: introduce computation as the need arises in the context  People in the discipline know what computation is really useful and necessary.

If you could do it better, it doesn’t matter…  The discipline of computer science is dedicated to developing computational tools.  One aspect of this goal is to make the tools more accessible and flexible.  As the discipline matures, the tools it produces also become more mature.  We’ve succeeded!

If you could do it better, it doesn’t matter…  Ten years ago students knew  what a folder or directory was,  how to create, rename, and move files, how to install programs,  how to change basic operating system settings.

If you could do it better, it doesn’t matter…  Today students are experts at  finding papers on the web,  installing apps on their cell phones,  all sorts of communication technology from cell phones to texting to facebook.  They have mastered today’s technology!  They are already literate at what they need to do

Conclusion  Many people in various disciplines feel that we’re in the post-computer age  Technology has (almost) achieved it’s goal: it has become ubiquitous and invisible  The use of technology (literacy) has thus become domain centric