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1 Why Know About Information Technology?
Pages 6-14

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From page 6...
... Information technology helps people to keep in contact with family and friends via e-mail, manage their finances with spreadsheets and online banking, track investments through an online broker, pursue hobbies like genealogy or gardening with specialized software packages, help their children with homework and school projects using word processing and graphing tools, find medical information, become informed about political candidates and communicate with their political representatives, and track environmental issues or monitor public policy issues over the World Wide Web.
From page 7...
... Opportunities to apply information technology to business problems and opportunities to integrate existing information technology solutions continue, implying a continual training mission. Obviously, this training task is greatly simplified if the labor pool is already well educated in information technology, since employees come up to speed faster and require less training overall.
From page 8...
... In "Mindstorms," Papert asserts that a deep understanding of programming, in particular the notions of successive decomposition as a mode of analysis and debugging of trial solutions, results in significant educational benefits in many domains of discourse, including those unrelated to computers and information technology per se.2 He further argues that computers can be the means for educators "to support the development of new ways of thinking and learning" (p.
From page 9...
... While some of these issues were argued and debated before the advent of modern information technology, the pervasiveness of information technology has brought many of them into the public consciousness in a more poignant and vivid manner. Some basic understanding of information technology thus is needed to make informed judgments about these public policy issues, many of which have a direct impact on citizens whether or not they use information technology in their daily lives.
From page 10...
... Finally, entirely apart from public policy concerns per se, the growing use of information technology throughout the world may have profound social effects (Box 1.1~. 1.5 UNDERSTANDING, KNOWING, AND USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY This report asserts that individuals must understand information technology in order to use it effectively.
From page 11...
... Though the resident may not necessarily be familiar with the local streets of the exit, knowing the landmarks and general organization of the arterials will allow a rapid recovery. In the same way, a computerliterate individual knowing only basic information technology skillsword processing, e-mail, simple Web browsing may appear not to need a deep or robust understanding of information technology, but when faced with an unexpected event or a problem, may well be less able to adapt or to find a work-around.
From page 12...
... , the answer to this question cannot be static. The rapid pace of change in information technology electronic computers are barely 50 years old, the term "PC" is less than 20 years old, and the World Wide Web has been known to the public for less than 5implies that neither a fixed repertoire of skills nor a static curriculum taught "once and for all" can possibly suffice.
From page 13...
... If effectively using information technology were as simple as driving a car or using an automatic teller machine, it would be easy to teach what one would need to know about information technology in order to use it. But computers and communication are more versatile and in a deep sense more powerful technologies, making the educational task more challenging.
From page 14...
... . Functionally, a more FIT individual is better able to use today's information technology effectively in personal and professional life, to adapt information technology to be personally relevant, and to acquire future knowledge as information technology changes than a person who is less FIT.


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