William C. Flick
ABSTRACT
In recent years, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of new users wanting to learn computing skills. Many of these users come from fields which, traditionally, have not made great use of the computer as a research or data processing tool. In our own academic setting, this includes such fields as the Humanities, Arts, Home Economics and Foreign Languages. Administrative and secretarial personnel also account for a large percentage of these users. Many of these people use the computer as a text-processing tool rather than as a tool for research and data collection. This shift in the requirements of our new users is accompanied by a change in the type of computing skills they need to acquire. These changes challenge us to provide a relevant and well-planned course of instruction.
In this paper, we describe a model of course development used in the area of second language teaching. We then describe a computer short course sequence based upon this approach and, finally, supply a bibliography of further references.
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Index Terms
- The new user: Teaching “computerese” as a second language
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