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Discussion from Topic 11

Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor, SILS
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: 1-734-763-3581
Fax: 1-734-764-2475
E-mail: karen.drabenstott@umich.edu

New Topic: Computer Literacy, Introductory Technology Workshops, Etc.

It is time to end our discussion of "ILS Education in Lesser-developed Countries." Our LISTSERV editor, Cathy-Mae Karelse, had the difficult job of sparking the conversation at a time when many LISTSERV members here in the States were at the annual meeting of the American Library Association and/or enjoying our Independence Day holiday. Many thanks to Cathy-Mae who initiated the discussion, synthesized it several times, and kept it going despite the many disconnected American LISTSERV members. Perhaps, as the LISTSERV discussion continues, we can revisit this topic by addressing how our opinions, viewpoints, and recommendations on future topics would have an impact on ILS schools in lesser-developed countries. Thanks again to Cathy-Mae Karelse for assuming the role of guest editor for this important topic.

We will now turn to a discussion of "computer literacy for incoming ILS students. In winter 1995, SILS initiated an "introductory workshop" for incoming students. In the previous semester, many faculty realized that our students needed instruction on accessing the school's and the university's information infrastructure . My colleague and fellow faculty member, Joseph W. Janes, took the lead in designing, developing, and deploying an introductory workshop for incoming students. (See the Kellogg CRISTAL-ED web presentation for information on SILS' introductory workshop.

Joe Janes is an Assistant Professor in the University of Michigan's School of Information and Library Studies. His research interests include how users make decisions about and evaluate information, and the development and use of networked information resources. He teaches courses in information technology, especially concerning distributed networks, online searching, and statistics. He is also Director of the Internet Public Library. Check out the Internet Public Library which is an ongoing project in Joe's Resource Discovery classes.

Thanks, Joe, for leading the discussion on technical skills students need to know/have upon entering a future-oriented ILS program.

Joseph Janes
Assistant Professor
School of Information and Library Studies
The University of Michigan
Director, the Internet Public Library
304 West Engineering
Ann Arbor MI USA 48109-1092
Voice: 734 764-7321
Fax: 734 764-2475
janes@umich.edu

Subject: Computer Literacy

I've been teaching in this field for several years now, and have been involved throughout that period in courses incorporating or focusing on use of computing and network technologies. One of the great challenges in teaching such courses, especially introductory ones, is the pronounced variety of skills, experiences, attitudes, and facility with technology which students bring to these courses.

It has been increasingly the case, especially in the last 2 or 3 years, that it's necessary to take class time to discuss some relatively basic technological matters so that students can use these tools (for example, email, use of conferencing systems, Internet matters, and so on) to do the serious stuff. Some folks sit in rapt attention, others are completely befuddled, still others gaze into space, hopelessly bored.

We at SILS in Michigan have made a beginning in addressing this issue by instituting introductory workshops for all incoming students, focusing largely on technological skills we feel necessary for everybody in the first few days of their programs.

I was involved in the planning and execution of the first of these, which was held this January. That process raised some intriguing questions, which I hope generate some lively discussion on this group:

Paul Pattwell
Newark Public Library
pattwell@pilot.njin.net

Technological Preparedness

My own experiences as they relate to the current topic center around the training I received as a graduate student of the Rutgers SCILS program. Because I was interested in the application of technology in libraries when I attended back in 1981 I took all the courses offered. They included programming courses in PL1 and Basic.I struggled in both courses to get the assignments to work or rather to run. However my understanding then was that the guiding principle behind the course offering was not to turn library scholl students into programmers but rather to give us a solid grounding in the concepts and language so that we would be able to communicate to those with programming skills how we wanted to fit the technology to our needs. So, in closing if I were to recommend an approach I would advocate training that gives information specialists the ability to aid in the design and development of systems. In the book written by Paul Heckle on the art of friendly software design he observes that the gap between the end user and the software engineer comes largely from their inability to get beyond a view of end users that reflect similar abilities as them. That gap is further widened by a user base that has neither the skill or language to communicate in the language of the designer why some aspect of product is difficult. His point is that those among us in the information business need to get beyond it is easy to use and/or it's hard to use descriptions.

All in all whatever is offered as course work the point is that the design invariably fuels the expectations as to what the minimum people will comprehend. We should look at this as an ongoing process that gives the learner basic language and skills so as to evolve along with this rather rapidly changing technology.

Donald Case
Director & Professor
School of Library & Info. Science
502 King Library South
College of Communications & Info. Studies
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0039
Voice: (606) 257-8415
Fax: 257-4205

Computer / Technology Competencies

This issue of what skills L&IS students should have upon entering and exiting our programs is a challenging one. I've reflected on it for 11 years and have seen a broad spectrum of student backgrounds and attempts to "homogenize" them in various ways.

It is a thorny problem because it conflates several differences among students and the outcomes we expect of them:

  1. Are we talking strictly about "skills" or background knowledge, too?

    It used to be popular to require a computer programming course, under the assumption that, in learning to program, students will learn "procedural thinking," how to decompose and solve problems, the limits of computers, etc. There is something to that, and yet what is the value of learning to program in a particular language? Having seen many students learn BASIC in order to pass such a requirement, and then never using the language again, I have some doubts. Any particular language learned has the potential to become useless IN ITSELF. But what remains of the knowledge learned from programming, and how important is it to L&IS education?

  2. How current do skills need to be? Does it matter where they originated?

    Many students learned technology-related skills on the job -- some recently, some long ago. What does it mean if a student had a programming course 15 years ago but has not used it since -- does any knowledge remain useful? Again, I'm focusing on the assessment of entering students, but it is useful to know where someone has BEEN in order to decide how and where to take them. And it is so hard to compare student backgrounds.

  3. Local constraints and needs.

    Joe mentioned workshops and they do seem to be a useful approach in getting students up to speed. New students need to learn the locally preferred applications, equipment and networks anyway. Making such workshops "required" and any formal sense can be tricky, though, if you have an institution that wants grad school/academic senate approval of any new "program requirements." (Even in putting together formal courses for approval the university is not geared for rapid change in curricula.)

Those are some thoughts on the "entering" student end. Deciding exit requirements is loosely coupled to these problems, and even more difficult.

Paul Doty
Information Literacy Librarian
Jim Dan Hill Library
University of Wisconsin Superior
pdoty@wpo.uwsuper.edu

Technology Literacy Training

I think one of the best ways to approach technology literacy training when it comes to networked resources is to pursue the line: "Here's what the Internet doesn't/won't do." Since just about anyone who doesn't use the Internet regularly has their image of the Internet formed by advertisements, it is crucial that students quickly get a sense of what they will really find "out there." This line works, I think, to undo the perception that the Internet is a "free" source for any manner of text. A survey of what is really available will impress upon students the nature of copyright, the need for critical reading, and that information is a commodity, and thus requires capital. This is also not a bad perch for discussions with students about what the online world might become.

Of course to do this one must have a good working knowledge of the Internet access tools. So in the classes I teach we work with E-mail, Telnet, Gopher, FTP, WWW, and as we practice survey what we find. I also point out that there is more than one way find materials, and that commercial services provide resources that our campus access to the Internet does not. (But then again these services cost.)

Further, I think that whilst doing this students can translate out of the mirror and see what the Internet is.

Miriam A Drake
Dean and Director of Libraries
Georgia Institute of Technology
ymiriam.drake@ibid.library.gatech.edu

Computer/Technology Competencies

I would like to see the requirement that students have an operating knowledge of personal productivity tools such as word processing, spreadsheet, E-mail, database program (DBASE or ACCESS). I like the idea of requiring a programing course. As Don Case pointed out, it teaches people how to analyze and solve problems. Without a general background in computing and programming it is difficult to communicate with IT types in their language. I also like the idea of students being familiar with algorithmic thinking. They will need it.

More and more undergraduate curricula are requiring knowledge of personal productivity tools and providing instruction for students who need it. The requirement will be less of a problem than it was a few years ago.

I also want to put in a plug for a course on quantitative methods. One of my great frustrations as a manager is the inability of some of our folks to think and communicate in quantitative terms.

Ling H. Jeng, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science
University of Kentucky
502 King Library South
Lexington, KY 40506-0039
Voice: (606) 257-5679
Fax: (606) 257-4205
LHJENG00@ukcc.uky.edu

Technology Knowledge and Skills

Here at the library school of Kentucky, we have had some lengthy discussions among the faculty on this issue last year.

Level of Technology Competency We recognize three levels of "competencies" (for lack of better words) that need to be addressed in our curriculum:

First and most urgent, students must know enough computer skills to stay on track in their coursework. With computer technology involved in almost all courses in the curriculum, this means that students must possess the survival skills from the moment they enter the program.

As the students progress into core courses and beyond, the focus shifts from survival skills to learning skills for accessing and using various information systems. All students, including the majority who do not plan to become system librarians/designers must be proficient in access and use of information systems currently available on the market.

Those students who wish to concentrate their study on technology or system design/management must go beyond the access/use level and be proficient in designing and customizing the information systems for their local user groups.

Methods We believe that the survival skills should be considered as entrance requirements. For students who have no computer knowledge upon entering the program, there should be workshops available. Survival skills we have singled out include DOS/Windows operations, word processing, spreadsheets, and E-mail. Databases are not included here because we think it needs to be covered more thoroughly in core courses.

The access and use of various information systems need to be integrated into both core and advanced courses. We believe that there is no one single course that could achieve this goal.

For students with concentration on technology/system design and management, customized design in a networked environment should be the emphasis. Courses at this level should address among others: system measurement and evaluation, user centered system design, networked computer technology, and technology innovation.

The above is the collective thought among the faculty here as the result of several curricular discussions last year.

Peter Graham
Rutgers University Libraries
psgraham@gandalf.rutgers.edu
169 College Ave.
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Voice: (908) 445-5908
Fax: (908) 445-5888

A programming course is less and less necessary; not because what it provides isn't helpful (and Miriam Drake notes some of the good reasons) but because:

  1. Setting up web pages, including specifically the use of HTML
  2. Setting up macros in any of a number of environments, whether file downloading or word-processing
  3. Installing software on a micro, especially when it includes mopping up after previous installs and managing upgrades
  4. Learning how to navigate gophers and to FTP, which certainly requires precision, understanding of rigorous organization, and error management.
Just some examples; and these have real-world usefulness, whereas C++ for librarians is a bit, um, arcane.

Norman Howden, Ph.D.
School of Library & Informational Science
University of Missouri
Columbia 65211
nhowden@slis.missouri.edu (LAN)
libnh@showme.missouri.edu (UNIX)
Voice: (314) 882-8918 (voicemail after 7 rings)
Fax: (314) 884-4944

Let me second Ling Jeng's point that there is a general framework for what we teach as computer literacy. In introductory courses I've always felt that students need to have 1) skills that will make them productive in a first professional position, 2) skills that will allow them to compete for promotion, and 3) skills that will provide a foundation for being a supervisor and manager. When I've managed an information center I've looked for people that could adapt themselves and their skills to the technological environment, and I see other managers doing the same. Professionals are problem solvers. Within the curriculum we often look at computer skills as being required for the next level course, but we need to look beyond that. We are not just building good students, we're building good alumni. To effectively do that we have to prepare students for the environment in which they will function, rather than just teaching them what is trendy or that the professor knows best. While we're teaching them to author web pages, it might not hurt to know what a variable is or how to build a spreadsheet for a budget. Expectations should probably be developed that go well beyond the library door, to expecting hybridized library systems to be accessed from within other systems, by remote users of every type, and with as much "support" as any other system. That means bringing data communications and demography and interface design and user support issues to the table somewhere in the curriculum.

Tom Kochtanek and Norman Howden, Ph.D.
School of Library & Informational Science
University of Missouri
Columbia 65211

Computer Literacy

The University of Missouri-Columbia School of Library and Informational Science has offered an introductory not-for-graduate- credit course, IS 101 Computers in Library and Information Science, since 1968. During the mainframe era this course covered some Basic Assembler Language and focused on PL/1 and its string manipulation capabilities. In 1983, in the midst of the transition to a PC-based Intel platform, the course evolved into a problem solving course utilizing Microsoft Basic as a vehicle. Programs included parsing strings, storing bibliographic records (including a MARC input routine written in MS-BASIC) and related routines. This required "leveling" course was transformed during the late 1980's to a course that increasingly included Internet based competencies. As it is currently taught, IS 101 is exclusively Internet and World Wide Web based, and it concludes with a student assignment to create a personal home page using an HTML editor.

That chronology aside, the common understanding here is that incoming graduate students would be given the opportunity to take a "leveling" course focusing on the use of technology (hopefully successful use), including local systems (the hallway LAN, the campus wide information system), community or statewide networks (e.g. a community Freenet originating possibly in a local or regional public library system), and wide area network accessibility (e.g. the Internet, and its current "gold rush" town, the World Wide Web). We also focus on skills associated with certain general purpose productivity packages, e.g. Word Perfect for word processing. This course can be taken either by registering for a 2 credit hour undergraduate course, or by completing a set of proficiency exercises. It is required.

During the students' active pursuit of the masters degree a required graduate course focusing on SELECTION and MANAGEMENT of library information systems is taken. Elective courses in Information Storage and Retrieval and in Digital Libraries focus on DESIGN issues and competencies.

It is this hierarchy of use, selection, management and design that seems to remain constant while course content parallels specific trends in the library and information science profession. In summary, USE of technology is required as an entry level competency; SELECTION and MANAGEMENT competencies are required within the core of graduate offerings; and DESIGN competencies exist as a set of elective offerings.

On a separate note, Tom Kochtanek, Norm Howden and Nancy Zimmerman, in a project supported by the 1994 ALISE Research Award, gathered extensive sets of data associated with computing facilities and technology competencies from ALA-accredited School of Library and Informational Sciences in the fall of 1994. Presented at ALISE '95 in Philadelphia, the results included a section on competencies required. The report states:

"Graduation requirements for computer competencies seem to be preferred to admission requirements. A total of 40 respondents out of 41 (97.6%) do not require computer literacy skills for admission but 34 programs (82.9%) require some technology competency for graduation. The requirement is met through a variety of methods that are not mutually exclusive. Core courses are used by 31 schools (91.2%), a required lab is used in 9 instances (26.5%), just 5 (14.7%) use independent study, another 5 use courses outside the department, and 7 (20.6%) schools use some other approach."
Further definition of what competencies might be taught came into focus with analysis of the competencies inventory, a fairly lengthy question in the survey that asked whether specific competencies were included in core or elective courses.

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