A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.
— Robert McNamara
Unbelievable Computer Literacy quotations
It's not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human-literacy. Computers have to become human-literate.
Video games provide an easy lead-in to computer literacy.
They can get you thinking like a video game designer and can even lead to designing since many games come with software to modify the game or redesign it.
Similarly, computer literacy courses tend to produce computer people who know a lot about computers or a piece of software but they don't help people become fluent with the machine.
Here are my strong reservations about the wave of computer networks.
They isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience. They work against literacy and creativity. They undercut our schools and libraries.
Cyberattacks have become a permanent fixture on the international scene because they have become easy and cheap to launch. Basic computer literacy and a modest budget can go a long way toward invading a country's cyberspace.
It's pretty much how we get anything added to the curriculum.
When parents said children needed to be computer literate, the schools started responding. The same thing is true of basic financial literacy.
While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computers discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in favor of video. While we fret about the decreasing cogency of public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and promote fast, shallow romps across the information landscape. While we worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software that will do a student's arithmetic or correct his spelling.
A common way to compute density is, of course, to take the ratio of an object's mass to its volume. But other types of densities exist, such as the resistance of somebody's brain to the imparting of common sense.
Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable. As in all the arts, a romance with the material must be well under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing a part of our lives?
The kind of teacher who is afraid that they are going to be replaced by a computer should be.