Copyright 1987 Guardian Newspapers Limited

The Guardian (London)

November 26, 1987

LENGTH: 553 words

HEADLINE: Computer Guardian: Higher culture - Computer literacy

BYLINE: By RAY THOMAS

BODY:

Frank Webster's question - 'We don't talk about electricity literacy, why should we talk about computer literacy?' - deserves and answer.

Some knowledge of electricity is important for everyone. Someone who does not know that mains electricity can give a severe shock is a danger to themselves and to others. Anyone who does not know the cost of using electricity for heating is not a good manager of a household's finances. But someone who can fit a 13 amp plug or change a fuse can install and maintain an electrical device unaided.

Some of the skills of computer literacy are analogous to these electrical skills. Setting up a micro and connection peripherals, using the keyboard, and loading a program roughly correspond to these practical and basic kinds of electrical competence.

With multi-user systems these tasks do not fall to the user, who is shielded from the operating system and such matters as back up storage. Practical tasks are usually the responsibility of technical staff. The skills associated with these tasks are commonly labelled low-level. They have become part of the debate about computer literacy because of the spread of personal computing to homes and offices where technical support is not at hand.

Above this level computer literacy cannot be separated from knowledge of the application area. The computer literat individual is definable as one who can use a computing system in his or her area of expertise. What might be labelled as high level computer literacy does not require knowledge of how computers work, but only knowledge of what computers can and cannot do.

A computer language - a way of giving instructions to a computer - can be written by anyone capable of specifying consistently the meaning and syntax of the language. Designing a computer language does not require contact with any technology. Most languages have been written by individuals who have also been programmers, but that historical pattern does not invalidate the distinction between the design of a language and the production of compilers and interpreters necessary to make the language understandable by a computer.

The design of a computerised information system does not require knowledge of how computers work. Traditionally system analysts and designers have been promoted programmers - but programming knowledge is not a necessity.

Computer literacy includes mental skills associated with using a computerised information system. The system encodes the expertise associated with the area of application. A skilled user has a mental map of the system and must be regarded as computer literate in that area of application.

The range and variety of computer applications has no limit. Any recorded form of culture can be translated into binary code.

Whether or not a specialised language or package is written and used depends on the existence of individuals with knowledge of the area who are also computer literate. computer literacy cannot be handled independently of culture.

Computer literacy may well, as Frank Webster asserts, be an ideology imposed on the population. But computer literacy also allows for culture to be imposed on computer systems.

Ray Thomas works at the Open University and can be contacted via Telecom Gold Mailbox 72:MAG50009.