Computer Literacy as Ideology

For most students, however, the conventional wisdom regarding the future of computing is firmly in place. These quotations, each from a different student interview, offer a clear indication of its acceptance:

Student #1 (an adult learner): I just think they’re a fact of life. I don’t see them - I think they’re gonna be just as common as televisions or whatever down the way... my husband and I have a business, so the necessity is coming... I have no choice, I have to learn how to use them.

Student #2: In tech areas, I find that you have to have a computer knowledge. ‘Cause everything is going more computerized by the minute... understanding about when you get out into the work force, you - somewhere along the line you are going to have to deal with a computer... even a car has a computer somewhere in it...

Student #3: I’m going to take a computer course, because - they’re like, actually they’re probably gonna be the thing of the future. The only thing that’s gonna be useful.

Student #4: I figure by the time I get into the work force, I’ll need the computer knowledge, at least to an extent.

Interviewer: And what do you plan on doing when you get to the work force?

Student #4: I want to be, um, a teacher.

Student #5: I just think they’re useful, because they are going to become the future. Probably no matter what you do, computers will be needed.

Student #6: They’re coming in, computers are in everywhere now so, I mean, people accept them as just another part of things, so why shouldn’t they be part of your school too?

Interviewer: I notice you’re signed up to take a computer course next term.

Student #7: I took it because we’re going to need it in the future. ‘Cause computers are going to be everywhere you go.

Interviewer: Do you have some idea what kind of work you might like to go into?

Student #7: Not really.

Interviewer: But you’re pretty sure it’s going to involve computers whatever it is.

Student #7: Well, yeah.