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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: What is Computer Literacy?
Message-ID: <1640@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Mon, 20-Apr-87 13:29:41 EST
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Posted: Mon Apr 20 13:29:41 1987
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Mark Edwards writes:

>  Absence of fear, perhaps plays some part, but only on a basic level.
>  For instance, while I was a computer technician working on high
>  voltage display tubes I had a big fear of getting zapped. This fear
>  was a healthy fear, because it made me make sure I took of my watch
>  and any other jewelry that would attract electrons. 

	The only problem here is that your fear of get shocked had
a very real basis.  For most people who fear computers this is not
the case.  I work as a consultant on the campus network.  While I do
occationally get questions from experianced users who need to know some
fine or obscure detail of the system, most of the people I help are new
users with little or no knowledge of computers.  The biggest single
problem that most of them have is an irrational fear or distrust of the
machine.  In turn, most of this fear is simply due to the fact that it
is something new to them.  They jump when it beeps at them because they
feel that it is yelling at them, they are afraid that they will mess 
something up, ect, ect.  Helping them overcome this fear is basically
a matter of boosting their confidence. No, it's not yelling at you,
it's asking you for help.  You can't mess anything up at this point, 
and so on.  Showing and explaining that it isn't some monster out to
trick them and eat their grade, but a tool to be used helps to remove
some of that fear.  
	As for the general discussion, I do think that this fear is
a very big part of the difference between the computer literate and  
the computer illiterate.  Once they start to overcome this fear there
are still steps to go through.  On a pragmatic basis, I draw the line
at the point where people start using the online or printed manuals
first before they come running to a more experianced user or consultant
for help.  At that point they have developed enough self-confidence
and knowledge of the system to further their own knowledge.
	I think that this really is a form of literacy.  Learning to 
understand a manual page definately requires a knowledge of an
other language (especially a CMS help file :-).  In addition, simply
coming to understand the syntax of a system's commands is a language
skill.  I have had considerable success simply explaining that a 
command is a verb, sometimes it requires an object (the filename or
pathname) and that the options are adverbs.  The only real problem
is that most (all?) operating systems that I am experianced with have
the modifiers (the adverbs) separated from the verb and following it.
This seems illogical to most English speakers when they first encounter 
it, since English uses pre-positions in most cases.  Does anyone have
experiance with teaching users whose first language is predominately
post-positional?  Do they find it easier to understand, say, UNIX 
command structure?  

	Vnend