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March 28, 2006
A Model for IS Literacy
Nik Hassan of the University of Minnesota in Duluth has been exploring the question of IS literacy for sometime. This past week, he sent me a copy of a paper that he has submitted to the AMCIS Conference in Acapulco this August. I was especially drawn to a literacy model in his article:
source: Nik Hassan, University of Minneosta, Duluth, Used by permission.
This model seems awfully familiar to me -- I'm thinking it might help me understand what I've been trying to do in the classroom for many years. In the 'Perform social practice' box, I try to introduce some sort of a problem, some need, some task that a future business person will need to accomplish. An example might be creating the hardware/software budget for a department.
Now, in order to create that budget (or in his terms, perform the social practice), I need to be able to apply a set of symbols ... here, those symbols might be to understand the relationship of CPU, amount of main memory to workload. Note the phrase is Apply symbol system. I need to not only know what CPU, main memory, and workload are, I need to be able to apply them to the social practice (make the budget). In parallel with that application, I may need to manipulate technology ... here that technology might be to use a spreadsheet so as to be able to construct the budget in such a way that I can input workload and determine the budget particulars. The final result is an emergent element of IT literacy.
Note, too, the feedback loop. The produced budget enters the realm of social practice and presumably is evaluated against some set of criteria. I assume that's what he means by Control (though I may be mis-construing his meaning). In the classroom, the instructor (or group members) provide the control. And, of course, multiple trips through the loop provide greater feedback and greater confidence in the application of the symbols and the manipulation of the technology.
I like it and, as I said, it seems intuitively familiar.
Hassan has also written on the importance of diversity in defining IS literacy here.
Lots to think about!
Posted by DavidK at March 28, 2006 06:05 PM | Permalink