Computer Literacy for Teachers: Where are we now?

INTRODUCTION

It is expected from the educational system to respond to the current and predict future needs of society. One of such current needs is for individuals, upon completing their education, to be computer literate. If this is the case then one should expect that teachers should be computer literate in the first place so that they can educate others. In this paper, we wish to, first, consider what preparation teachers receive in the area of computer literacy. Second, we wish to propose a course which includes both traditional newer uses of the computer in educational settings.

COMPUTER LITERACY REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHERS

In the period between January 1992 and September 1993 we used listserv?based discussion groups (AETS - Association for the Education of Teachers in Science; CNEDUC -Computer Networking Education Discussion; DEOS - Distance Education Online Symposium; DTS - Dead Teachers Society; ERL - Educational Research List; CTI -Computers in Teaching Initiative; NEWEDUC - New Paradigms in Education List; IPCT - Interpersonal Computing and Technology) to collect answers to the following two questions:

A total of four mailings were made. The second, third, and fourth mailings contained a summary of earlier results with the request for additions and/or corrections. The results of our investigations can be summarized as follows:

The computer literacy requirements can be met by passing:

These results show a lack of generally accepted definition of computer literacy. The three forms of passing the computer literacy requirement suggest three different understandings of the term. A person is considered computer literate if she/he:

Results of our survey show also that very little consideration is given to teaching prospective teachers how to incorporate new technologies into the teaching process. Except for rare occasions (point 2c above), teachers are either not prepared to introduce computer usage in their future classrooms, or they receive a rather misguided preparation for doing so. One cannot expect a teacher to use Pascal (or any other standard programming language) to write his/her own software (point 2a). It is also equally difficult to expect somebody only exposed to use of basic computer tools (point 2b) to be able to find a way to introduce them into the educational process.

All this seems to suggests that, first, understanding (i) of computer literacy should be discarded as a relict from the times when the primary way to utilize computers was by writing programs. Second, two types of computer literacy courses may be needed. The first course would focus on basic skills, such as using word processing, database, and spreadsheet programs. The second would deal with skills needed for future work and be dependent on the student's major and projected future employment.

A COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE FOR TEACHERS

As applied to the preparation of teachers, this second course would concentrate on all aspects of using the computer as a classroom tool. It should consist of three parts: evaluating computer software and hardware, examining the use of authoring software, and using computer networks.

The first two parts of the course support the well known educational uses of computers. First, educational software, like any software, can range from very good to very bad. It also ranges from simple drill-and-practice types to complex simulations. Prospective teachers should learn how to evaluate software, what criteria to use and how to apply such software in their classrooms. Second, prospective secondary school teachers should learn how to evaluate current hardware and design experiments when computers are used to gather the experimental data. The second part of the proposed course is based on our belief that if we expect teachers to do any programming then the level of authoring software is the most appropriate one.

The third part of the course that may require more discussion. There are a number of reasons for including network based communications into a computer literacy course for teachers. Computer networks can be used directly in the classroom to facilitate teaching. Through the use of FTP, students and teachers can obtain public domain software, technical reports, and papers. Listservs can serve both as a means of communication between groups and, as was done in the preparation of this paper along with other recent papers by the same authors, a way to do research. In addition, the writing of this paper was done virtually through e-mail. There also exists a number of journals published in an electronic form only.

The globality of computer networks allows for the development of a multi-cultural approach. Recent changes in the world suggest that teaching based solely on textbooks and limited to the physical classroom will quickly become outdated. Computer networks provide the classroom teacher with a means to provide his/her students with connections to the rapidly changing world. There are several projects oriented towards communication between individuals, both teachers and students, of various countries. Many countries also require that their students be computer literate. Therefore, by showing students how to use their computers as a communication tool, it would be possible to increase their multi-cultural awareness and, at the same time, reduced cultural differences.

CONCLUSION

It is a given fact that today's society is and is becoming increasingly computer oriented and that individuals need to be computer literate. It may be argued that teaching will always require a personal touch and that touch can only be arrived at by the physical presence of the teacher in the classroom with the student. However, the changing nature of both society and the learner along with the rapid growth of knowledge suggest that alternatives to traditional teaching need to be considered. If we expect the schools of tomorrow to prepare graduates of those schools to use available technologies, then we need to prepare the teachers who will be responsible for that education. Such preparation must include all facets of the computer as a tool. It is our belief that, even though this is not the only possible solution, the proposed course is a step in the right direction.