Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. -Warren Buffett-

Unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.

Winston, if you were my husband, I’d put poison in your coffee. -Nancy Astor- Nancy, if you were my wife I’d drink it. -Winston Churchill-

There does not now, nor will there ever exist, a programming language in which it is the least bit hard to write bad programs. -Lawrence Flon-

Back in the day, many post secondary institutions implemented a campus-wide requirement for a “computer literacy requirement.” In the late 1980’s or even early ’90’s this made sense. Any undergraduate ought to be broadly educated, at least to some degree.

By the turn of the century, these tests had outlived their usefulness. Incoming freshmen students typically had been using computers for years, and knew perfectly well how to use a computer, and even the Internet. Where I taught we finally scrapped the “computer literacy requirment” and happily gave up the enormous adminstrative load it entailed: tracking which students had completed the requirement, which ones did so by taking a class, which by testing out of it, and so on.

In the profession, computing education moved on from “literacy” to “competency.” It was defined as the difference between being able to use a computer now versus being savvy enough to be able to maintain your “literacy” over many years, as the technology changed. By now, of course, it is changing ever more rapidly.

Then one day a new faculty member in the Education realm came to campus and he soon felt we ought to re-implement a “computer literacy requirement.” He even had it worked out: he knew of a company that would (for a fee) develop a 100-question terminology test all about Microsoft Office, administer it, and maintian all completion records. I tried to discuss with this individual the outdated mindset of such an approach. He wasn’t interested.

I would agree that many students, who were adept users of all kinds of application software, might not know the exact technical terminology of various finer points of Microsoft Office. But I could not see how forcing them to pick up these specific words would enhance their terminology skills, nor make them better computers users or better students.

Exasperated, I came up with a Computer Literacy Test of my own, which I felt was really more in line with computer competency.

It is, by now, quite dated. But the point remains valid. Consider my suggestion to what a student ought to know, on their own, versus cramming to pass an unnecessary 100 question multiple choice test.

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Computer Literacy Test

Provided: a computer with an active Internet connection, two application installer files, a printer (which is not installed on that computer) and that printer’s installation CD.

Tasks:

1. Install Pidgin instant messaging client software.
2. Locate an instant messaging service on which you do not already hold an account. (If you already have an account on every major service, inform the test proctor – you will be permitted to use an existing IM account.)
3. Create an account there and log on to it using Pidgin.
4. Install OpenOffice.org desktop office application software.
5. Install the printer.
6. Use OpenOffice.org to produce a one-page output, either choosing a text document or a spreadsheet document.
7. Print that document.
8. Send that document in either Microsoft Office Word format (i.e, “.DOC”) or Excel format (i.e., “.XLS”) via instant messenger to the test proctor.

Notes:

• Both Pidgin and OpenOffice.org are free client software. Both provide multiple-platform, self-executable installer files including support for Microsoft, Macintosh and Linux systems.
• Today’s networks make instant messaging accounts freely accessible, and cross system familiarity (e.g., Yahoo! or Google) is a commonplace need.
• Similarly, the ability to produce Microsoft-compatible documents from non-Microsoft application software is a widespread need and it is not hard.
• Both of the selected application software title have adequate help systems such that a typically computer literate individual should not have difficulty looking up how to perform the simple tasks required.
• Contemporary operating systems (including Windows, Macintosh and Linux) have fully automated the installation of common peripheral hardware, such as printers.

A computer literate individual should be able to complete these tasks in less than one hour. The expectation is that the average completion time would be near thirty minutes.

Parts is parts -(Wendy’s)-

I’m not writing my C.V., I’m writing my biography. -Linda Nicholls-

Complexity is looking at interacting elements and asking how they form patterns and how the patterns unfold. Science doesn’t like perpetual novelty. -W. Brian Arthur-

Batten down the hatches! (But sir, we already did.) Well, batten them down again. We’ll teach those hatches!

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.