Computer literacy 3.0
• Larry Press
• Cal State Dominguez Hills, CIS
Department
• lpress@csudh.edu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Talk overview
• Computer literacy generations follow
platforms
• Today’s platform – the Internet
• Today’s students
• Computer literacy 3.0 – which skills?
• Computer literacy 3.0 – which concepts?
Computer literacy generations
Gen. Platform
Content
0
Batch processing none
1
Time sharing
BASIC, IP concepts
2
P. C.
3
Internet
4?
Mobile internet
Productivity applications,
fewer concepts
Internet applications and
content, different concepts
?
Batch processing era
no computer literacy courses
By 1954, we had expensive
interactive computing with GUIs
Sketchpad
Early 60s: time sharing made
interactive computing with a command
line interface affordable
Dartmouth public terminal room
Dartmouth Time Sharing, 1964
“The primary goal motivating our
development of DTSS was the conviction that
knowledge about computers and computing
must become an essential part of a liberal
education.”
Kemeny, John G., and Kurtz, T. E., "Dartmouth Time Sharing, “Science,
Vol 162, No 3850, October 11, 1968, pp 223-228.
Skills and concepts
“The average college graduate of today is almost sure to
need a computer in his work twenty years from now.
Therefore, we must prepare him today to use this most
powerful of tools”.
“Even more significant is the need for changing the attitude
of the typical intelligent person towards computers. ...It is
vitally important that the leaders of government, industry
and education should know both the potential and
limitations of the use of computers, and to be aware of the
respective roles of Man and machine in the partnership”.
John G. kemeney and Thomas E. Kurtz, “The Dartmouth Time-Sharing Computing
System,” Final Report to the NSF), June 1967.
Computer literacy 1
Skill
• Basic programming
Concepts
• Hardware
• Software
• Numeric and text data encoding
• Applications
• History and social implications
Basic, 1964 – a teaching language
“In all cases where there is a choice
between simplicity and efficiency, simplicity
is chosen”.
Kurtz, Thomas E., "BASIC" in Wexelblat, Richard L., "History of Programming
Languages," Academic Press, New York, 1981.
First published BASIC program
10 LET X = (7+8) / 3
20 PRINT X
30 END
•
Statements all begin with verbs, making the
imperative nature of the instructions explicit.
(BASIC manual, 1964)
Algorithmic thinking in BASIC
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
PRINT
INPUT
IF x$
IF x$
PRINT
STOP
PRINT
END
“Do you like me?”
x$
= “yes” THEN 70
= “Yes” THEN 70
“You are ugly!”
“I like you too!”
In 1975, a personal computer with
a CLI became affordable
In the mid 70s, we could afford to port
our CLIs to character oriented CRTs
Computer literacy 2.0
Skill
• OS and file system (CP/M, DOS)
• Productivity applications (123, WordStar, WordPerfect,
dBase)
• A taste of BASIC
Concepts
• Hardware
• Software
• Applications
• History and social implications
In 1984 a personal computer with a
GUI became affordable
With Windows 3, Office became the
skill portion of the course
Computer literacy 2.1
Skill (increased)
• Windows and its file system
• Microsoft Office applications
Concepts (decreased)
• Hardware
• Software
• Applications
• History and social implications
In the late 1980s, we began building a
wide area network, the Internet
Computer literacy 2.2 (today)
Skill
• Windows and its file system
• Microsoft Office applications
• Email and Web surfing
Concepts (decreased)
• Hardware
• Software
• Applications
• History and social implications
• Internet applications and technology
Our students have grown up using
the Internet and mobile IT
• Beloit College Mindshare list
• Wesch’s “Vision of Students Today”
• Cringely quote – over the top?
Beloit College Mindset List
2010
• They are wireless, yet always connected.
• “Google" has always been a verb.
• Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and
snail mail to retail items.
• They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.
• Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
2011
• Music has always been “unplugged.”
• Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in
real time.
• Virtual reality has always been available when the real thing failed.
• The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
• They’re always texting 1 n other.
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/index.php
Vision of Students Today
Michael Wesch's video Vision of Students Today
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/
Some IT-related characteristics
• I spend 3 1/2 hours a day online.
• I will write 42 pages for class this semester ...
and over 500 pages of email
• I will read 8 books this year ... and 2,300 Web
pages and 1,281 FaceBook profiles.
• I buy $100 textbooks that I never open.
• I bring my laptop to class, but I'm not working on
class stuff.
• I FaceBook through most of my classes.
• This laptop costs more than some people in the
world make in a year.
Cringely quote
We've reached the point in our (disparate)
cultural adaptation to computing and
communication technology that the younger
technical generations are so empowered they
are impatient and ready to jettison institutions
most of the rest of us tend to think of as
essential, central, even immortal. They are
ready to dump our schools. (my emphasis)
R. Cringley, War of the Worlds: The Human Side of Moore's Law, March 21, 2008,
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080321_004574.html. See also :
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080328_004611.html and
Computer literacy 3.0
Skills
• Content creation
• Application development
Concepts (new)
• Networking and communication
technology
• Policy and implications
Skills – create content and
applications
• Concise, often collaborative writing using wikis
and shared documents
• Image, audio and video editing
• RSS
• Social bookmarking with tags
• Synchronous collaboration using voice and video
conferencing, chat and screen sharing
• Blogs
• Threaded discussions
• Social networks
• Data and service mashups
Writing, a content creation skill
I will write 42 pages for class this semester ...
and over 500 pages of email. (Student quote).
• Conversations
• Short documents
• Collaborative writing
Conversations
Winograd’s taxonomy covers much Internet writing:
• Conversations for action: a request or offer which is
subsequently confirmed or dropped
• Conversations for clarification: obtaining more
information about something said earlier or in a prior
conversation
• Conversations for possibilities: creating ideas and
selecting one or more for future discussion
• Conversations for orientation: exchanging information
about themselves or a situation (bilateral or unilateral)
Short documents
I would not have made this so long except that I do not
have the leisure to make it shorter, Blaise Pascal, 1656.
Tips from Jakob Nielsen’s Alert Box blog:
• Blog posts
• Web pages
Reading
• Books must be read as deliberately and
reservedely as they were written, Thoreau,
Walden, 1854
• People rarely read Web pages word by
word; instead, they scan the page, picking
out individual words and sentences. How
Users Read on the Web, Jakob
Nielsen,1997
Collaborative writing
• Wikis, shared documents, blogs
• Compiled documents
– Relatively simple
– A good way to begin
• Co-authored documents – difficult
– Organize off line?
– Lead author does first draft?
– Lead author creates outline?
Skills: application development
• The Internet is the “new spreadsheet”
• The spreadsheet made many users into
amateur application developers
• The Internet has lowered the application
development bar much further
• Can create ad-hoc applications – a blog,
social network, threaded discussion, Web
site, etc. in a few minutes
• Class roster example …
Visicalc spreadsheet, 1979
Application development example:
a class roster database
• Using ASP
• Using Zoho Creator
Class roster using ASP
Four screens – with transitions
Class roster using Zoho service
Data entry using Zoho service
Features using Zoho and ASP
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
View as list, spreadsheet or summary
Add, delete, and edit records
Create an RSS feed showing database changes
Search and sort
Rearrange, hide or display columns
Import data from xls, csv, tsv or email
Export as spreadsheet, csv, pdf, json, tsv or html
Create permalink to data entry form
Include data entry form in your Web site
Create permalink to the database or embed any
view of the database in your Web site
Develop and debug class roster
ASP
• Four screens and plan transitions between them
• 159 lines of script code (includes comments)
• Six files
• Some knowledge of ASP, Visual Basic, and SQL
• One day (less if I were a pro)
Zoho
• One hour
Concepts: networking technology
• Accelerating improvement in communication, storage
and electronic technology
• Data types -- numbers, text, images, audio, and video
• Data encoding and compression
• Analog versus digital data
• Circuit versus packet switching and the rudiments of
layered protocols (at least application versus the rest)
• Internet connectivity from fixed (home and organization)
and mobile and portable locations
• Rudiments of wireless technology -- transmission
frequency, attenuation, modulation
• Client-server and mashup architecture
• Software as a service (for users and developers)
Concepts: implications
•
•
•
•
•
Implications for individuals
Implications for organizations
Implications for society
The global diffusion of the Internet
Telecommunication policy
Computer literacy 4.0?
•
•
•
•
1.0 Time sharing
2.0 Personal computer
3.0 Internet
4.0 Mobile Internet?
Open questions
• What skills should be included in computer literacy 3.0?
• What concepts should be included in computer literacy 3.0?
• Who is developing courses that teach these skills and
concepts?
• Should we teach computer literacy as a stand alone course
or disperse it throughout the curriculum?
• Does computer literacy require two full courses?
• Should all students take the same computer literacy course
or should there be different versions?
• Is the term computer literacy too narrow?
Blog the answers at: http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com
Which skills and concepts?
• Applications and the concepts they
illustrate (Edit)
• List of skills and concepts (Edit)
Follow up links
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Email: lpress@csudh.edu
Web site: http://bpastudio.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/
Class notes and exercises:
http://bpastudio.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/471/networkapplications.htm
Blog: http://cis471.blogspot.com
Computer literacy 3 blog:
http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com
Annotated version of this presentation:
http://bpastudio.csudh.edu/draft/csupomona.ppt
Google doc spreadsheet concepts vs applications
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pu8HOBIoLkOuT3dxSOMD4IQ&hl=en
Google doc spreadsheet concepts and skills
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pu8HOBIoLkOvPY--tKEpSQQ&hl=en