The Attack on Computer Literacy

Abstract

This paper provides a commentary on Robins and Webster's article "Computer Literacy: The Employment Myths" within the broader context of critiques of computer literacy. The author argues that the various critics of computer literacy are participants in wider disputes over pedagogical method, the purposes of education, and the role of education in a class society. In some ways computer literacy provides a pretext for these more general controversies, and the particular merits and problems of educational computing frequently become submerged under these wider debates. The author concludes that many of Robins and Webster's points are overdrawn, and that computer literacy is neither as useless nor as dangerous as they imply. Keywords: computers, employment, education, cognition.