Computer Literacy - Computer Skills

Computer skills refer to the ability to use the software and hardware of a computer. Being "computer functional" is usually what is meant by one with computer skills; computer literacy is only really evident in advanced computer skills.

They include:

Basic computer skills

  • Knowing how to power on the computer
  • Being able to use a mouse to interact with elements on the screen
  • Being able to use the computer keyboard
  • Being able to shut down the computer properly after use

Intermediate skills

  • Functional knowledge of word processing
  • How to use e-mail
  • How to use the Internet
  • Installing software
  • Navigating a computer's filesystem


Advanced skills include

  • Programming
  • Understanding the problems of data security
  • Use of a computer for scientific research
  • Fixing software conflicts
  • Repairing computer hardware

Read more about this topic:  Computer Literacy

Famous quotes containing the words computer and/or skills:

    What, then, is the basic difference between today’s computer and an intelligent being? It is that the computer can be made to see but not to perceive. What matters here is not that the computer is without consciousness but that thus far it is incapable of the spontaneous grasp of pattern—a capacity essential to perception and intelligence.
    Rudolf Arnheim (b. 1904)

    The invention of photography provided a radically new picture-making process—a process based not on synthesis but on selection. The difference was a basic one. Paintings were made—constructed from a storehouse of traditional schemes and skills and attitudes—but photographs, as the man on the street put, were taken.
    Jean Szarkowski (b. 1925)