Probing Question: What does computer literacy mean these days?

By Melissa Beattie-Moss - Research/Penn State Remember when watches had springs you would wind' When mail meant letters delivered by a mailman, and the only kind of files came in manila folders' If so, you're a dying breed. By the mid-1980s, American life had been radically transformed by the computer chip. These days, digital technology governs everything from our alarm clocks and coffeemakers to our cars, books and newspapers - not to mention the way we work and play on personal computers of all shapes and sizes. Given how thoroughly we're steeped in today's wireless web-connected world, how has the meaning of computer literacy changed' "The term began largely as a way to signify operating a computer, as in how to use it in a functional way," says Stuart Selber , a Penn State associate professor of English, and science, technology and society. "If you could print or save or back up work, comprehend terms like megabyte or megahertz, and navigate a file structure, then you were considered to be computer literate." Today that outdated definition "only gets us so far," notes Selber. "Simply understanding how computers work in functional terms will not lead to the type of informed practice educators are interested in and democracies need." Librarians were among the first to expand the term in important ways and change it to "information literacy," he adds. "There's so much coming at us all the time and librarians rightly worry about the ability of students, teachers and researchers to evaluate all of the information that's out there, especially when it's distributed through non-traditional channels like blogs and wikis." One of the main challenges for academia, believes Selber, is shifting the locus of computer education.