In Selber’s “Reimagining Computer Literacy,” he makes some very good points about computer literacy as it currently stands and what it could be in the future. One thing I noticed in both Selber and then in Rheingold’s interview “Shifts of Technology and Power” is the theme that if powerful technology is going to be in the hands of everyone, they need to be taught to use it properly.
And by “properly” I don’t mean the standards Selber parroted from Florida State University (which were amusing to read by the way, given their references to “floppy disks” and “Windows 2002″). I mean thorough knowledge of computers and programs that students can use not only in academia but in everyday life. It’s like what Selber is saying with his three literacies- the functional, critical, and rhetorical. Students are getting plenty of the functional knowledge, but where is the critical and the rhetorical that will make those students effective producers?
Essentially, I think computer class curriculum are due for a redesign. There has been plenty of emphasis on the functional side of computers (which will get students jobs, to be sure), but the other elements should definitely be integrated as well (so that students will hopefully have a better idea of the possibilities their computer holds once they’re done typing that umpteenth document in MSWord).