COLUMN: In defense of the CILs
In a world dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and texting; information literacy, by its classical interpretation, seems to be in a decline. The Computer Information Literacy Exams, or CILs, are put in place to prepare us for the real world. Starting with the entering freshman class of 2011, however, they will not be required for graduation. This seems foolish to me. We have access to endless amounts of information via the Internet. While we have little trouble finding it, we have no concrete way of knowing if the information is legitimate. I need go no further in example than an opinion article written by one of my colleagues. He detailed a story posted on theonion.com about President Obama sending a 13,000-word apologetic email to every person in the country. Written tongue in cheek, this story ended up on foxnews.com as apparent “news” without any indication of its intent.
The fact is, nothing we read on the Internet can really be trusted. Now before you run to the shores of Walden Pond to live a life of disconnected solitude, remember that information online can be verified the old fashioned way, with books and printed newspapers. But again, as I have demonstrated in previous articles, one can pretty much publish anything they want. It all comes down to trust and careful research. If we trust the source, we are OK. If not, we better look further into it.
The idea behind the Computer Information Literacy exams is to assure that we know how to properly search out, receive, and convey information in this interconnected world that we live in. While I do consider Wikipedia to be the fountain of all knowledge, the same format that makes it so great can lead to serious problems. Anybody can add to or edit articles as they please. It is only through the process of checks and balances that the information remains true. If I were to write that Utah State football went 12-0 and won the national championship, some poor soul in India researching the gem that is American College Football may take this information as fact in the few minutes it might take for an honest person to spot and correct my lie. The better we know how to research and cite correct information, the better off we will be in real life, where misinformation can be quite unforgiving.
Not only do we need to know how to retrieve and cite information, we need to know how to convey it. There are three CIL exams dedicated to determine one’s proficiency in each of the three main programs that make up Microsoft Office. They are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Having worked in the office of an architecture firm before beginning my college career, I can attest to how often these programs are used in business situations, and how essential they are to a functioning office. Proficiency in these programs was a requirement for my job, as it was for everybody working there. I assume the same standards hold true for most offices and work environments around the world. If we leave college without this knowledge, we jeopardize our chances of getting a job. In the times we live in, taking away any possible advantage could prove fatal.
The arguments that led to the 14-2 vote to disband the tests were that most students already know what they are being tested on. Sure, your average student knows their way around a computer, at least enough to post a picture on Facebook or write a basic paper for a class. The job market, however, demands much more. Many jobs require pristinely formatted documents for reports, seamless professional presentations, and efficient, complex spreadsheets organized in such a way that anybody can understand their presentation. I take very little risk in assuming that all jobs out there require at least one of these skills if not all. At the very least, one must know how to make an e-mail look and sound professional.
For me, the CILs took about two hours to complete in one sitting without studying. For others, it takes several attempts and extensive preparation. We are all different. However, general education requirements are there to make sure that nobody leaves this institute of higher education without minimal knowledge of a few crucial things. That is why it makes little sense to eliminate the tests from the graduation requirements. In my case, the CILs were a prerequisite for taking English 2010. I don’t know if it is like that for everybody, but it should be. It would avoid wasting precious lecture time discussing basic formatting, and allow the class to be more geared toward refined writing.
The University promises that the essentials of the test will show up in other places in the future, but it doesn’t seem very efficient or cost-effective to get rid of something that already works and implement a whole new program. I say stick with the old system. I am fully aware that many students don’t like the CILs. Then again, those same students probably don’t like final exams, lectures, or waking up in the morning. As it turns out, real life is made up of things we don’t want to do. Let’s start with the CIL exams.
Tyler Barlow is a sophomore majoring in computer engineering. He can be reached at tyler.barlow@aggiemail.usu.edu