Nowadays information overloads us: television, radio and above all Internet. How to cope with all this? It is necessary to develop skills to understand messages and the intentions of their authors.
Stuart Selber has written a book called
"Multiliteracies for a Digital Age" where he says, "
one has to be more than a computer geek to claim computer literacy" . He shows three aspects in the definition of computer literacy. In my opinion, the first one is technical and the other two, social:
- Functional Literacy refers to the computer as a tool and how to use it.
- Critical Literacy is associated with the ability to understand and reflect about the relationship between technology and society.
- Rhetorical Literacy allows people to react to the inherent influence of persuasion present in the messages of non-neutral power structures.
Selber says that academic institutions have the responsibility for developing this three-staged computer literacy and that the traditionally technical support is not enough.
