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superintendent, who wants his stu–
dents to be as comfortable using the
computer as their parents are using
pencils, paper and books.
"We all have to lose our awe of
this tool , the computer," declared a
university professor. "We are no
longer in awe of the telephone or
the electric drill."
The worker's first survival skill
will be knowing how to operate
keyboards and computers of al!
kinds for many purposes.
What if you have been out of
school or col!ege for many years
and your employer has no retrain–
ing program? You will have to take
steps yourself to become computer
literate.
In Minnesota, for example,
teachers are taking computer litera–
cy courses on their own time, with–
out pay.
Since most count ries are unpre–
pared to retrain their work forces,
national strategies for retraining
displaced workers cannot be relied
upon. Computer literacy- that is,
in short, being knowledgeable
about the computer world-will
become a prime job requirement.
How can
you
prepare for the
future, even if others don't?
Acquiring the New Literacy
Tbe most common misconception
appears to be that one must know
how to program a compu ter in
order to use it at all. That is not
true. One should know how com–
puters and programs work, but
need not know bow to design
either-just as a racecar driver
understands his machine, but need
not be a mechanic or roadway
designer.
With rising numbers of pro–
grammers on the job, thousands of
programs- the operational materi–
al (software) that tells the comput–
er what to do- have already been
written and are ready for use. Pro–
grammers use math, common sense
and logic to write programs in a
computer lao_guage, but you need
not repeat this process in order to
use the software.
Designers try to make their soft–
ware as easy to understand as possi–
ble. For instance, in sorne systems,
type
O
and you can open a file that
contains your manuscript, budget,
listing or appointment schedule.
July
1
August 1983
Type a
P
and your file prints out
on a connected printer in a fraction
of the time it would take you to
type it on a typewriter. Type
X
to
exit the computer.
Admittedly, some programs are
not that easy to operate. And com–
puter literacy means more than
tapping a few Jetters on a key–
board.
Sorne computer scientists sum
up computer literacy like this:
"Learn enough about a program–
ming language to write a simple
program, be able to do word pro–
cessing (edit, move and print out
text), draft a simple budget using
calculation-type software and know
the principies behind the terms
such as magnetic tape, compiler,
CRT, disk drives, terminals, hard–
ware, memory and others."
Another professional says litera–
cy shou!d mean being able to use a
computer as an everyday too! to
solve problems and to do the tasks
that help you the most.
It
should
mean being comfortable with a
computer keyboard.
Living in a computerized society
TECHNOLOGICAL SURGE-Left,
in–
specting microelectronic circuitry that
comprises computer boards. Right, auto–
mobile manufacturing is aided by
increasing numbers of robots. Bottom,
youths use a computer to monitor profits
from a lemonade stand.
25