A 2006 study of I.T. literacy in Europe by Eurostat used the following criteria to assess ability:
In the survey, persons who ticked none of these six items were classed as having no computer skills, those who ticked 1 or 2 of these skills were classed as having low level basic computer skills, those ticking 3 or 4 were classed medium level, and those ticking 5 or all items were classed high level.
No data from Ireland were available for this study. However, prior to this, the Irish Central Statistics Office did carry out a similar surveys and used the following additional criteria:
But what do these surveys tell us? Do they truly measure literacy? They do in the definition of the CSO and Eurostat. But is this a good enough definition? I think not.
Take the analogy of a motorist. If you can start, stop and steer a car then you have the basic skills. If you know how to comply properly with the rules of the road and know how to check oil levels etc. then you have medium skills. If you have advanced driving skills such as being able to handle a car in a skid then you are highly skilled.
Notice I made no mention of being able to perform maintenance such as changing the oil and filters. This can be left to a professional just as technical maintenance of a PC can be.
The key here is that these surveys have ignored the equivalent the medium skilled motorist. Every I.T. user should know how to check the oil in their PC. They should have an understanding of security issues. They should be able to install virus protection and keep it up to date. They should know how to use a firewall correctly. They should have a basic disaster recovery plan in place. They should know how to safely uninstall applications. And so on.
The grading of literacy would better be as follows:
The strange thing is that the Irish government launched a major campaign called Make IT Secure which offers excellent advice on keeping your PC protected. Sadly however, perhaps due to the insufficiency of the data collected in surveys by the CSO and Eurostat, they do not seem to realise the fact that the vast majority of home users simply do not know how to follow this advice.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Addictions Advertising Back to school Banks Blogs Builders Characters Charity Commentary Crappenings Driving Economy Education Environment Estate Agents FAQ Farming Friends Fun Gaeilge Gardaí Guest blaggards Health HSE Immigration Internet Irish identity Jokes Kids Kildare Law Life Literacy Local Media Mothers Movies Neighbours Occasions Painting Pet Hates Pets Photgraphs Photos Plonkers Poetry Polish Politicians Politics Pubs Pub talk Racing Radio Relatives Religion Science Shopping Snippets Spam Sport Tech stuff Time Transportation Travel Travellers TV Uncategorized Weather Wildlife Women Work
I’ve noted with a bit of bewilderment the appalling level of computer literacy and skills among Irish people, given the fact that much of our economic boom is because of the high-tech field. Even my own technical savvy came late enough and was largely self-taught. The awful broadband service Irish web users are subjected to another puzzling thing.
The origin of this lies in an overly-utilitarian view of education that the Irish have long held and which dates from a time when the country was less well-off and the main goal was a job for life to stave off the necessity of emigration. It is rare for Irish people to see education as a benefit in itself - it is rather something that will enable one to get a job. Hence the hostility to learning Irish in school (though, in fairness, the cack-handed way it has been taught doesn’t help either).
Subjects in the Arts and Humantities are often demeaned and despised by Irish people because the perceived scope for employment afforded by them is too narrow (the only thing people can ever think of is teaching, which shows a despairing lack of vision and imagination).
Until Irish people rid themselves of this functional view of education the general receptivity to diverse skills and new ideas will continue to be poor.
You’re really doing my whole back-catalogue, a Sheanachie! I’m flattered.
While Betrie and Co. like to tell us our economic boom is because of the high-tech field, this is a twisting of the truth. Granted, some companies have had a genuine development presence in Ireland, however the vast majority use Ireland as a tax haven and base lowbrow activities here such as software distribution (IBM), tech support (SAP), component manufacturing (Intel), equipment assembly (Dell). These are simply not high-tech.
Broadband - Don’t get me started. Pop over to Damien for a bitch-fest on this.
On education, I think you will find there has been a sea change in recent years with respect to the arts and humanities. Enrolments in these are growing while those in science and tech are dropping. Students have their parents’ tiger-money to keep them going while they study subjects they really want to rather than one with a guaranteed job at the end. Others simply go on to third level as it is what their peers are doing.
While this may be laudable, there are drawbacks too - With the massive increase in college places there is stiff competition between the institutions for students. Not so long ago it was competition between the students for the institutions. The result is a drop in the standards for entry which knocks on to a low standard of output. Lecturers have often told me they can’t teach to the level they used to as their students cannot absorb it.
Point taken regarding the tech sector in Ireland not being very ‘high’ end. Like many outsiders I have a tendency to conflate creation and programming with support, though I had noticed that I’ve met far more programmers in Paris than I ever did in Dublin.
The standards might be dropping for entry to arts and humanities but there was always a sizeable number that ended up there for want of anything else to do. And the second-level sector (or rather An Roinn Oideachais [sic]) carries a lot of the blame there. The downgrading of history in second-level institutions is symptomatic of the neglect.
When back home at Christmas I met a Serbian woman who lectures in the English department in UCD who told me that she was shocked at how little many of her Irish students knew about European culture and history. I told her not to worry - they probably knew as little about the Irish equivalents.
Good blog, I’ll be scouring more of the archives…