I think at the broadest level computer literacy is an understanding of the
"why" sort of questions about computers, as opposed to the "how" sorts of
questions which I consider to be computer training. Teaching people about
spcific software packages comes more under the training rubric, teaching
people about how computers work, what an operating system is, etc is more
under the literacy rubric. Take media as an example. You can teach someone
about each individual medium (floppy, CD-ROM, SyQuest, etc) and have to
explain it each time, or you can teach more general principles (the
difference between a hard drive, floppy drive and those things "in
between", what access times are, stability of media, etc) and probably
answer their questions for life. Most non-mainframe software is very
similar from platform to platform, so teaching the ideas as opposed to
which keystrokes to use would be another example of literacy vs. training.
I think that literacy is the idea of the "ground" of a subject from which
spring the "figures" of specific examples of that subject; without teaching
the basics of a subject most learning is by rote, and less permanent
whereas teaching the basics *and* the specifics gives a more integrated and
permanent understanding.
Hope that helps...
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Allan R. Barclay, Reference Librarian (317) 274-2254 (voice)
Indiana University School of Medicine (317) 274-4056 (fax)
Ruth Lilly Medical Library abarclay@iupui.edu
975 W. Walnut Street IB 109 abarclay@concentric.net
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5121 http://www.medlib.iupui.edu/medcai
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