The multiplier effect of computing literacy on user services

ABSTRACT

COMPUTING MAY BE USED in any or all of the following areas within an educational institution: instruction, research, and educational administration. The first two areas involve faculty, students, and researchers. The latter involves the educational administrator. All three user groups are, or will be, involved in integrating computing into their daily professional lives. The degree to which this will happen will depend on the ability of the academic community to understand where and how to apply computing in their respective areas.

The ability to understand and use computers as a problem-solving tool has come to be known as “computing literacy.” Within the last five years, the development of computing literacy has been one of the more urgent concerns within educational institutions. The nontechnologist is not oriented towards the use of the computer as a problem-solving tool. Helping the individual to achieve computing literacy is an essential activity for brining about behavioral change and reaching this goal.

Some of the issues that must be addressed as part of implementing a computing literacy program are to:

• Understand the environment for which it must be developed

• Develop a working definition of computing literacy that is suited for the environment

• Identify the target audience(s) to be involved in a computing literacy program

• Develop a computing literacy curriculum

• Develop a delivery mechanism to provide the education

• Evaluate the program's effectiveness

This paper will discuss the comprehensive computing literacy program currently in place at Iona College. It will discuss Iona's approach to resolving the above issues and the implementation of a comprehensive computing literacy program for students, faculty, administrators, and staff. It will also discuss the relationship between interest in computing and demand for user services. It would appear that the introduction of computing literacy programs can be correlated to an increased request for user services and a need for an ever-widening scope of user services.

Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Computing literacy

    • Management of computing and information systems