In 1997, the National Science Foundation commissioned the National Research Council's "Computer Science and Telecommunications Board" to do a study of information technology literacy. In the course of the study, which was completed in 1999, the researchers concluded that information technology literacy was quite different from information technology fluency.

The researchers observed that information technology literacy—often called computer literacy—has come to refer merely to information technology skills, that is, the ability to do things with computers.

In contrast, the researchers elected to adopt the term information technology fluency, a term they intended to refer to three kinds of knowledge:

1. Skills: "the ability to use particular (and contemporary) hardware or software resources to accomplish information processing tasks."
   
2. Concepts: an understanding of "the foundations on which information technology is built."
   
3. Intellectual Capabilities: the "ability to apply information technology in complex and sustained situations and to understand the consequences of doing so."

The researchers also stressed that these three elements of information technology fluency are "co-equal, each reinforcing the others" and that such fluency is "something that develops over a lifetime."

(Being Fluent With Information Technology, National Academy of Sciences, 1999.)

These pages were written by Jeffrey L. Nyhoff and Steven H. VanderLeest and edited by Nancy Zylstra
© 2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved.

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.