Abstract
Software is not neutral. It comes with social and cultural assumptions that afford particular actions while constraining others. The notion of software literacy is emerging as one way to conceptualise the repertoires of skills and understandings needed for people to be critical and creative users of software packages and systems in a software saturated culture. This conceptual model is a response to current digital literacy frameworks which do not identify the implications of the choice of software on what can be achieved. Studies on information literacy and on ways of mastering software have tended to ignore the role of software itself. The study of software is only now emerging as a field of study. This contribution argues for the relevancy of software literacy as part of understanding the ways people engage with software and how its affordances influences knowledge representation, generation and critique. It will define the term and set out three progressive tiers of development towards software literacy.
TopBackground
The proliferation of digital and networked technologies is an expanding and accelerating feature of modern societies and can be predicted to continue to rise and impact on almost every sphere of human living. Most people develop some level of proficiency with everyday software packages informally through their daily use and incremental engagement over time (Bulfin & Koutsogiannis, 2012; Hague & Logan, 2009). Informal learning practices have been shown to increase students’ sense of agency and consequently to have the potential to make learning a richer and more fulfilling experience (Furlong & Davies, 2012). Commenting on the the trend of digital penetration, numerous authors have further argued that ubiquitous access to digital technologies has shaped a new internet-centred generation of ‘digital natives’ (Oblinger, 2003) with the corresponding assumption that access to digital tools has, on its own, facilitated the development of new learning skill sets (Tapscott, 2009). Terms such as the ‘digital generation’, ‘millenials’, ‘Net Generation’ (Tapscott, 1999), ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001), ‘Google generation’, ‘Generation Y’ and so forth have derived from a host of assumption about the distinctive skill set of generations immersed within digital technologies. Such labels aim to characterise an emerging class of learners accustomed to engaging with software and technologies such that they can effortlessly adopt new technologies, operate at ‘twitch speed’, are able to multitask, imagine, and visualize while communicating in multiple modalities and consequently possess higher technical skills compared to previous generations (Prensky, 2001). The term ‘digital natives’ itself assumes a generational change in digital literacies fed particularly by informal learning, opinions which are closely informed by emancipatory rhetoric surrounding the digital. Consequently in part the term articulates anxieties amongst educational institutions and practitioners that they are falling behind the literacies students will bring with them to learning contexts.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Media and Information Literacy: An umbrella term for a number of competencies, skills and understandings associated with contemporary communication and information practices. This term encompasses the more specific term digital literacy, which is associated with digital media practices.
Software Platform: A coherent programming environment or system which supports applications. Examples include operating systems such as iOS or Android, or social media platforms such as Facebook.
Software Application: A computer program designed to perform a set of tasks or functions. Common everyday examples range from an ‘app’ on a smartphone, to desktop computer programs such as a web browser.
Affordance: A person’s perceived opportunity to utilise a particular tool for action, for example, a doorknob is for turning. Within software, these are typically organised through user interfaces.
Software Literacy: A person’s expertise in understanding, applying, problem solving and critiquing software in pursuit of particular learning and professional goals.
Software: Machine readable Instructions which directs a computer's processor to perform specific operations. For everyday software applications, these instructions are put into operation as computer users run an application.
Pedagogy: Study and practice of teaching.