Talk:Computer literacy

message: Taking a step back from the versions of literacy of technology, we have to understand the root of the topic. How far is it from digital to computers? Is that something like the distance between essay or writing style are from reading comprehension, retention or application? They are analogues. The base term "Literacy" is what's more important. Digital is to analog as computers are to the printed word or written and mailed letter rather. Within those realms after thousands of years of practice and study we can become so specialized we become professors and doctors of printed language. From the form of technical applications to abstract studies such as poems. Using that as a metaphor for our understanding of electrons versus the practical impact of computers, lets focus less on vacuum tubes and more on common factors of how these things implicate our world and our interactions. Those things are repetitious and it's human nature. Is it not better to discuss the human factor rather then the evolving details of the object? I think the implications of the technology and it's social impact are different enough to not combine the two subject's. Mrdtlv (talk) 19:17, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Please include your references, whether they are available for free online or not is not important, the important thing is whether they are reliable and NPOV or not.--Thorseth (talk) 20:37, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

text: I agree. There were a whole lot more POV´s. I removed the wrong POV and replaced it with my own.Zanaq 4 July 2005 02:29 (UTC)
Computer literacy is a subset of Digital literacy. Computer literacy is competency with regard to computer hardware. Digital literacy is competency with regard to software, hardware, systems and methodologies that are subject to and/or related to the production, consumption or use of digital media, tools, applications and content, or to the digitization of media or content, and both in a variety of contexts (including, increasingly, academic settings, where things like the affordances of social media applications in the classroom, or possibility of a digital classroom, are examined). Just saying. A redirect or merger is not an innocent act. I don't see a good defense for it.  (drmjb (talk) 22:32, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  From an outsider's perspective, it's hard to see what the difference is meant to be. No computer literacy course is going to stop with just a Naming of Parts but instead will talk about what you can *do* with the computer. Is there an authority we can find that clearly distingusihes what is meant? --Wtshymanski (talk) 17:12, 19 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Digital Literacy vs. Computer Literacy 

message: There are numerous grammatical and mechanical issues in this article. I've eliminated a few, but a complete revision would be helpful. The writing style of the article needs improvement, too, in the sense that this article is not fully encyclopedic. Any thoughts?  --weixifan 00:19, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grammar 

message: i dont see the relevance of 1st world in this subject or how computer literacy is more necesary in a 1st world vs 2nd or 3rd world. i cant speak for other countries, but i know first hand that americans are not very computer literate when compared to supposed 2nd and 3rd world countries like china or india.  
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uhhh... look at USA unix nerds...  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.54.93.126 (talk) 07:24, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that there is insufficient information about the relevance of computer literacy in developed countries. To contribute to this page I will research computer literacy in U.S. education, Focusing on early childhood education.gdoneil(talk) 15:43, 11 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  1st world? 

message: This article deserves a bit more more work! I've added links to ECDL and Literacy to get a few more people noticing the problem. --Mereda 09:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: And here it is four years later and not one citation.  Google Books gives 28,000 hits on the phrase "Computer literacy" with preview or full view...maybe we could put one or two citations in? --Wtshymanski (talk) 14:29, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  I'd put in more citations myself but I've honestly never visited this article before and doubt I will ever visit it again. Why do we even need this article? 173.25.85.143 (talk) 06:05, 21 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Verifiability: lack of citations 

message: Perhaps this article should deal more with basic computer literacy (like how to perform a web search or create a document; note that I mean these to be criteria rather than someone needing to write a guide to that;)) rather than saying that to be computer literate, you must know what an algorithm is, and why computers can't create random numbers. Those are just 2 examples, and neither of them is necessary to be able to use a computer effectively to perform a task that might be required at a job which isn't computer-centric.
To me, this article seems like an attack on computer newbies (particularly the Aspects of Computer Literacy section). A user does not need to know everything there is to know to operate a computer, just like a car owner does not need to know how to change his brakes. Just something future editors should keep in mind...
24.68.65.244 06:35, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with the idea that the article should deal with the basics. Maybe if the introduction described literacy in general and then went to "functional literacy". That is an easy split made in many other forms of literacy discussions. Define the general and the basic form. The previous example of a car is a very good example of functional literacy. The term literacy seems to bend towards the "functional" variety, not the "knowledgable" variety that we tend to think of. This article is in the right direction I believe. Again, the idea of the car given previously is (I think) the perfect essence of (functional) literacy. Any article dealing with literacy should lead in that direction (even reading). Otherwise it quickly becomes way too open ended very fast. Syscore 04:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Levels of computer literacy 

message: I think that levels are important. The base level should include the ability to switch on a computer, use a web browser, to search, and to send/receive email. Other easy to use tools such as video players, audio players etc. could also be considered at this level.
A higher level could include some of: the ability to read HTML source code, the ability to write HTML source code, the ability to put up a web page on a server, the ability to use CSS to modify the appearance of a web page.
There are other almost equally valid clusters of ability, such as the ability to read a program in a languages such as C++, the ability to write a program in such a language, the ability to install and run a program once written.
Yet another skill set could be to install a commercial package on a stand alone machine. Note that some skills change where networks are involved.
Understanding is important too, but not always necessary. Someone who knows about virtual memory and relationships between physical memory and virtual memory size may (but not always ...) be in a much better position to understand why programs do not always run at the hoped for speed.
Someone who knows about security threats may be able to detect problems in a computer, and hopefully also avoid them.
Where do we draw the line between what might be considered essential literacy and advanced? Should everyone understand functional programming or logic programming? (Probably not!) What about knowledge of low level execution - sequential execution (Von Neumann architectures), parallel systems etc.?
There are issues about how much knowledge should be expected by experts and how much by more general users. Memory issues may be particularly important when new operating systems are released. Users of older machines who "upgrade" to the new software may find that they take a terrific performance hit. While a simple solution may be to buy a completely new set of hardware, and indeed with continually reducing prices this may be economic for many, often an acceptable solution may be to simply install new memory, or one or two new devices. Computer literacy should include knowledge of hardware and media as well as of programs. Simple things, such as it will always take a long while to write a DVD using an older 1x or 2x DVD writer (such as were quite widely used even a few years ago), or that using 2x DVD media in a writer will also force even a fast writer to slow down, are easy enough to teach, and may not matter for many users - until they actually want to write DVDs. Awareness of hardware and performance could well be considered part of computer literacy, as over a long period of time this can have an impact on decisions which may have economic and performance related impact.
Yet another aspect is the human-computer interface. Users should understand the differences between the use of CRT and flat screen displays, and also why it might be a good idea to use screens with much greater desktop area (for example to show two documents side by side ...). HCI issues can have a big impact on productivity and how computers are perceived by users. Such awareness is not only necessary for end users, but also for managers etc. A manager who is convinced that use of 15 inch CRT monitors is adequate, and will provide cheap hardware may well overlook the possible benefits which could arise if his employees are given larger screens and better equipment, where the increased cost of hardware could easily be offset by increases in productivity, and/or general motivation of staff ("we use new equipment, rather than 5 year old kit ...")
Quality and reliability issues may also be important. Regarding quality, while most of us may not worry about colour quality in printers and displays (up to a point), in some areas of work it may be very important that displays and printers are calibrated and accurate for high quality work.
While it may be possible to use very high quality equipment in applications which do not require high levels of specification, the converse is definitely not true.
Should users also be aware of technological progress? Moore's "Law", or Roberts' "Law" for communications? What about open-source programs versus proprietary? Standards?
There's a lot to know - much of it isn't very difficult, but without awareness of some of this users may find it difficult to operate effectively.
David Martland 08:48, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Various levels of understanding 

message: To me, it seems that most of the article as well as this discussion has an "engineer bias". Don't get me wrong, of course "computer literacy" or digital literacy implies some technical knowledge, but are the various lists really examples of what the ordinary computer literate person absolutely, above all, needs to know? Most of it looks like a list of some engineer's or tech-support person's frustrations with clueless users, camouflaged as "topics". Do you have to be a programmer to be completely "literate"???
I believe that we need much more reference to research on the matter, after all there are scientific journals dedicated to this topic. We should look to them for more serious definitions. Now, I don't think a proper definition is easy to come by, but that's also part of my point. The whole article should start out with acknowledging that it is a term under much discussion.    
Here's another source, by the way. This one emphasizes critical reading over various levels of technical knowledge. I think that's very important. Focus on the real implications and forget about the small technicalities.
http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/resources/digital_literacy.asp  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Diskonaut (talk • contribs) 19:52, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Engineer Bias? 

message: Apropos of the above reference to bias, I would like to point out that this page incorrectly redirects from the query "Digital Literacy." I don't know how to intervene in such a redirect, but I do care to investigate the matter.  In the meantime, consider that Digital Literacy and Computer Literacy are not identical terms. They are used in different contexts, represent separate industries, and are defined by different interests. Therefore, their literacy (measurements of and disciplines for acquiring competency and comprehension) each have different parameters. The faculties of Universities expanding their Library Sciences programs are concerned with Digital Archiving and Digital Literacy, not Computer Archiving (if there even is such a thing) and Computer Literacy. The usage of these terms is quite distinct, and it is incorrect to colonize the term Digital Literacy under the rubric of Computer Literacy, as has been done here. Computer literacy refers to a competency with respect to a tool. Digital literacy refers to a competency with respect to the production and organization of data and knowledge (i.e., learning) systems, which may include an examination of computers and other tools used in that enterprise.
drmjb (talk) 23:32, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect Redirect 

message: It has been suggested that computer literacy be merged into digital literacy.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.34.46.182 (talk) 12:56, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: end

message: The overall tone of this article is not acceptable for an encyclopedia entry. The pronoun "we" is used liberally throughout the ENTIRE article, and the piece seems to represent an argument. I'm not sure how an article can end up so uniformly off-tone, there doesn't seem to be a common editor in the offending sections.
Rule of thumb: encyclopedia ariticles should be written as if they were intended to be read by aliens. The piece must be neutral, free from social or cultural distinguishes, and NOT REFER TO IT'S AUDIENCE AS "WE".  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.201.78.217 (talk) 12:18, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bad Tone 

message: Agree completely with the above. The article is in first-person for some reason and sounds like an essay.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.253.218.145 (talk) 06:13, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Please, be bold, and fix it! This article could sorely use a copy edit, and more importantly, more sources. — Mr. Stradivarius ♫ 09:11, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Non-encyclopedic writing style 

message: Is there any reason the entire "Importance of Computer Literacy" section of the article mentions only Australia? 50.58.64.34 (talk) 17:00, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  What's with Australia? 

message: I would like to add a few things that inform the reader of the presence of computers in the classroom as well as the importance of computer literacy in education. In the current article there is not a strong organized presence of information about computer literacy in education. Therefore, I desire to add content around the importance of computer literacy in and out of the classroom. Also, the importance of a student taking a computer literacy course in school.
Classes require students to perform tasks using a variety of technology. Students are required to often perform research and search information online. There are asked to participate in online discussions as well as review their peers’ work. Entire assignments may be online only. Furthermore, students may be asked to create a blog or wiki for a class or topic. All of these tasks require technological literacy. Obtaining adequate computer literacy should be a top priority for all students. To ensure students success in college, they should be required to take a computer literacy class preferably within their first year of college. Not every student will enter college with the same level of computer literacy as their peers.
Nataraj an academic director states in 2014, there is a strong urge for new college students to have adequate computer knowledge when they start their college career. Students should be provided a introduction to computer literacy course that provides them knowledge in commonly used. , software, hardware, and terminology. After students completed this course there was a significant increase in understanding of course material. His also states a common theory that “Entering freshmen nowadays do not need an introductory computer class since they have learnt all the necessary computer skills at the high school level” has been proven to be invalid with his research results. 
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Jjkerby (talk • contribs) 18:04, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Computer literacy in university education 

message: This article should only discuss the basics and nothing advanced such as use of the terminal or partitioning hard drives etc... Yes one may argue that the terminal is not "advanced" but in this day and age where everything is GUI based, and only true graybeards and tech-wizards know the use of the terminal, it should be considered "advanced" from a basic user's standpoint i.e. someone who only uses the computer to browse or watch cat videos on youtube, check email, or surf Facebook. <--- these are the users that this article is "targeting" not people who have an extensive background/experience with computers. I feel that the latter is better suited to a Computer Science page, or something such as computer programming. I say this as a computer science student who has taken introductory computer science courses in college (in Java, C/C++, and Python, and as a result-- in none of those three separate classes were we taught how to use the mouse, or how to use a web browser as that was already expected as a sort of invisible pre-requisite... I do understand the opposition to this, that it would "bias" the article and keep it as a sort of "attack" on newbies, but, in my understanding, this article is just intended to outline the basic knowledge that is required in order to use a computer...   JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 10:12, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  The direction of this article 

message: Just notifying everyone that I went in an updated all of the wikilinks including the wikilinks in the References pages. I fixed the links for References numbered: [5],[6],[7].
If there are any questions/suggestions/or feedback, please let me know here!
Thanks,
JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 21:07, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Great job at updating all of the links in the Wikipedia page for computer literacy! I have an additional concern about the links on this page. Some terms are linked too many times. For example, the word "computers" is linked at least 3 times. I believe each word in this article should at most have one link to its respective Wikipedia page. There are too many trivial links in this page. Jjkerby (talk) 18:24, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

text: Could you clarify what you mean by trivial? I agree that computers is linked multiple times throughout, the question I suppose would be when to have it linked and when to not. Any suggestions? JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 18:37, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

text: I believe you are only supposed to create a link for a term once in an article. It should be when you first introduce that term. Jjkerby (talk) 22:44, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Will fix that. JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 22:59, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikilinks 

message: When including the above in a sentence throughout the CL wiki article, should we refer to it as Computer Literacy, or computer literacy?
What is the consensus here?
JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 22:35, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the topic in this article should be referred to as computer literacy. Jjkerby (talk) 18:17, 27 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Computer Literacy or computer literacy? 

message: Added the issue concering multiple definitions and the K-12 section. I am curious to see what the finished article will look like!
JohannesdeSilentio (talk) 02:57, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: To contribute to the section for computer literacy in K-12, I have added a passage about how children are being introduced to computers in early education. I think that this also presents how computer literacy is forming in education and while I have only touched on early childhood education, I think it should expand to other education levels in K-12 as well.gdoneil(talk) 21:28, 28 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added two new sections 

message: I will be looking into additional citations and sources to help add more content and information to the topic of Computer Literacy. I am also going to double check that the article remains unbias to help support and maintain credibility to the article. 
Bibliography
Kelly, Ritter and Matsuda Paul Kei. "10. Studying Literacy in Digital Contexts: Computers and Composition Studies." Exploring Composition Studies : Sites, Issues, Perspectives, Utah State University Press, 2012, p. 188. EBSCOhost, libpublic3.library.isu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edspmu&AN=edspmu.9780874218831.17&site=eds-live
Wan, Hsu-Tien, et al. "A Multi-Year Study of Teaching an Online Computer Literacy Course in a Medical University: A Lesson Learnt." Educational Research and Reviews, vol. 11, no. 15, 10 Aug. 2016, pp. 1424-1431. EBSCOhost, libpublic3.library.isu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1111031&site=eds-live.
Lorenzo, Arnold R. "Effectiveness of the Computer and Internet Literacy Project in Public High Schools of Tarlac Province, Philippines." Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology - TOJET, vol. 15, no. 2, 01 Apr. 2016, pp. 38-46. EBSCOhost, libpublic3.library.isu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1096459&site=eds-live.
Vasilache, Simona. "Student Perspectives of Computer Literacy Education in an International Environment." Universal Journal of Educational Research, vol. 4, no. 6, 01 Jan. 2016, pp. 1426-1431. EBSCOhost, libpublic3.library.isu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1103172&site=eds-live.
Topkaya, Sati Gürdaş and Nurten Kaya. "Nurses' Computer Literacy and Attitudes Towards the Use of Computers in Health Care." International Journal of Nursing Practice, vol. 21, no. Suppl 2, May 2015, pp. 141-149. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ijn.12350.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Coovmich (talk • contribs) 04:18, 1 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Planning Improvements and Bibliography