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New UW class aims to help students become fluent in basic computer usage
Tuesday, December 21, 1999
By RUTH SCHUBERT
Here's where most people agree: a working knowledge of computers and technology is essential in today's job market.
The disagreements surface when they try to nail down exactly what constitutes a "working knowledge." Is it enough to know how to use the most common word processing and spreadsheet programs? Or does the average worker need to know more?
As the last educational stop for many students, colleges and universities are increasingly trying to define exactly what their grads should know about information technology before they head into the world of work.
This year, a National Research Council committee issued a report that outlines 30 skills and concepts students should know to be "fluent" with information technology.
"You need basic computer usage, you need to know well enough how it works so you can use it to your advantage, and you need to apply higher-level thinking to your usage so you know if you're being productive," said Larry Snyder, a computer science professor at the University of Washington and chairman of the National Research Council committee.
The goal, Snyder said, is to give students enough knowledge to be "lifelong learners."
The committee's approach is intended to give people the knowledge and confidence to trouble-shoot, de-bug and teach themselves the next generations of computer applications.
Snyder has taken the committee's work and molded it into a UW course for undergraduates who aren't majoring in computer science or engineering. It was launched this fall.
At the last class meeting, Snyder passed out a list of topics -- five pages and 141 study questions long.
"We have had 30 lectures, six assignments and five projects," Snyder said to the class. "What more is there to say?"
The course does cover quite a bit of material. Lectures addressed networking, working with databases, programming basics, computer simulations, searching and encryption, to name a few. In fact, many students did not realize they were signing up for something quite so comprehensive.
"This was just a frustrating class, because we weren't expecting to do programming," said Mary Heinrich, a junior majoring in psychology.
The National Research Council committee debated whether or not to include programming in the recommendation, Snyder said. In the end, the members decided that the logical thinking that underlies programming was important enough to include.
Snyder taught a pilot section of the course last spring. A study of the pilot noted that eight of the original 43 students dropped out, although those who stuck with it rated the class highly. Offering a course to non-majors that offers comparable breadth and depth is a rarity. The National Research Council report noted that although many colleges offer computer science courses designed for non-majors, most are confined to basic computer skills.
Duke University and Brown University are notable exceptions. At both schools, basic courses include computer programming and some of the bigger issues related to computing and society. And some universities have come up with creative ways of integrating computer science into courses such as history, public policy and economics.
But none of them attacks fluency in information technology quite like the UW course.
The next topic of debate probably will be whether computer fluency should be a graduation requirement. Snyder's not sure, but he does see the knowledge and skills covered in his course as increasingly important.
"My view is as the society becomes more technological -- and it's happening faster than anyone expected -- probably everyone needs to learn this," Snyder said. "I'm certainly designing the class so it's appropriate for everybody."
P-I reporter Ruth Schubert can be reached at 206-448-8130 or ruthschubert@seattle-pi.com
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