| Sumario: | Although almost everyone is convinced that schools and universities should teach students about computers, exactly what they should teach is not so clear. Since educators and their critics first began to consider making Americans computer literate two decades ago, the ideal of computer literacy and of an empowering relationship with the computer has changed dramatically. The goal originally was to teach students how computers worked and how to write programs, in order that they would gain mastery over the computer by understanding what went on inside it. Now, the goal is to teach students how to use computer applications, on the basis that if they can work with the computer, they can forget what is inside and still master the technology. The writer discusses whether this latter approach is enough, or whether it might be too much in some fields of education, where using computers is almost too easy a substitute for hands-on learning, in particular in relation to the place of educational software and simulations in the curriculum.
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