In order to collect input from the wider community, the committee has
developed a number of questions on which it seeks broad input. These
questions are directed at information technologists (e.g., computer and
telecommunications scientists and engineers) and are described below sets
of other questions will be addressed to employers, educators, and other
stakeholder groups.
1 -- For purposes of this discussion, the committee provisionally
distinguishes in a loose and informal way between fundamental concepts,
applications of fundamental concepts, and engineering and design principles
used in applying concepts. To illustrate, a concept might be "instruction
interpretation." An application of that concept might be "Java byte-code
interpretation." An engineering principle might be "design under
constraint" (e.g., designing a Java interpreter under the constraint of
limited memory or bandwidth.")
1a -- What are the fundamental concepts of information technology that an
educated adult should know? (Interpret information technology broadly to
include computing and communications.) For each concept:
-- describe it
-- identify the age or educational level at which you believe it should
first be introduced and
-- explain how it might be introduced.
1b -- What are the essential applications of the fundamental concepts?
1c -- What are the essential engineering and/or design principles relevant
to information technology?
For questions 1b and 1c, repeat the bullets under question 1a.
2 -- How do you expect the essential concepts, applications, and
engineering/design principles described in your answers to change over time
(as information technology evolves)? How should the pedagogical process
deal with such changes? How can/should individuals be taught to learn about
how to use new and never-before-seen computational artifacts (e.g., new
applications, services, hardware devices, software packages)?
3 -- How should concepts and skills be balanced in information technology
literacy? How do/should concepts and skills complement each other in
information technology literacy? How do they compete with each other? (In
other words, how and to what extent is there a trade-off in learning about
concepts versus skills?) [For purposes of this discussion, the committee
regards a "skill" as facility with a specific computational tool or
artifact such as a spreadsheet.]
4 -- How can individuals best learn the limitations of information
technology? How can they learn to make informed personal/social/policy
decisions about issues that involve information technology? The committee
invites you to submit your answers to these questions in the form of a
short position paper (5 pages or less) in addition, please identify your
field of expertise and your institutional affiliation. All responses will
be considered by the committee. In addition, respondents may be invited to
participate in a workshop to be held in Irvine, California on January 15,
1998 whose purpose is to discuss answers to these and other related
questions. Or, they may be invited to revise their position paper for
inclusion in the committee's final report.
DEADLINES:
December 15, 1997, for those who wish to be considered for participation in
the workshop. February 1, 1998 for those who wish their input to be
considered by the committee.
EMAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT: IT-Lit@nas.edu (This address should be active by
Friday, October 24, 1997)
FAX FOR INPUT: 202-334-2318
U.S. MAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT:
Dr. Herb Lin, Study Director
CSTB
National Research Council
Room HA-560
2101 Constitution Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20418
202-334-3191 voice
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Larry Snyder, Chair, (University of Washington)
Andries van Dam (Brown University)
Al Aho (Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies)
Jeff Ullman (Stanford University)
Allen Tucker (Bowdoin College)
Marcia Linn (University of California at Berkeley)
Arnold Packer (Johns Hopkins University)
==================================================================
Maria Zemankova, Ph.D.
Deputy Division Director,
Information, Robotics & Intelligent Systems*
Acting Program Director,
Database and Expert Systems**
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1115
Arlington, VA 22230
email: mzemanko@nsf.gov Phone: 703-306-1926 Fax: 703-306-0599
URL: http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iris/
* Soon to become: Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
** Soon to become: Information and Data Management (IDM)
!!! Also soon: complete my term as the Deputy and stop acting !!!
==================================================================
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