Teach to Conceptual Skills Not Specific Software

Jakob Nielsen, widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on website usability, usually addresses content and interface design issues in his Alertbox columns. In a recent column however, he provided some rather different advice for educators. Too often, he claimed, students are taught how to use specific versions of software. That’s certainly important for enabling students to use software to complete course assignments. The problem, pointed out Nielsen, is that instructors need to spend more time on deeper conceptual skills about computing both for when they enter the workforce and 10 to 15 years beyond that. He said:

Teaching life-long computer skills in our schools offers further benefit in that it gives students insights that they're unlikely to pick up on their own. In contrast, as software gets steadily easier to use, anyone will be able to figure out how to draw a pie chart. People will learn how to use features on their own, when they need them -- and thus have the motivation to hunt for them. It's the conceptual things that get endlessly deferred without the impetus of formal education.

Where this column gets even more interesting is when he discusses search engines and information retrieval. If we can agree that search is going to change significantly in the next 10 years, then the value of teaching students how to formulate good search strategies, how to judge search results relevancy, and how to be adept at using multiple search engines that offer different technical features is going to be critical knowledge for today's students. For students, these skills transcend knowing which search engine offers a certain feature or how to manipulate the search buttons.

Temple University librarians are experts in understanding how electronic research systems, both the many commercial subscription databases provided by the library and free internet search engines, function and their underlying mechanics. They are knowledgeable about the appropriate conceptual skills needed to obtain high quality research results with these resources. We encourage faculty to seek out our subject expert librarians for assistance in developing assignments that will help students to build the critical conceptual research skills that will take them through their college years and well into their time in the workplace.

-Steven Bell