Developing a computing culture involves the participation of the entire society. This is important because skills in computing enables learners to participate fully in the scientific and socio-economic activities in which they take part.
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n addition, computing is fundamental to progress and success in all other areas of life. It is therefore becomes necessary to develop an effective computing culture in order to develop societal ability to grasp the meaning of what is happening, by teaching to analyze a sequence of ideas and make logical conclusions.
Culture is a word invented by Cicero, who declared that philosophy is the culture of the soul. Culture as first defined thus, form part of a humanist, vision, which the philosopher of the sixteenth century took up for their own purposes.
Culturre can be defined as an integrated pattern behavior , practices ,beliefs ,and knowledge which are the operating rules by which people organize themselves . All members of culture do not necessarily react in the same way manner, fill the same roles, or comprehend their culture in exactly the same way, but all participate and thereby create and maintain the basic rules of the culture.(Obiajulu Ernejui and Lulu, 2007)
A third more recent definition is that, culture as a globalization commodity; companies are already making huge profit by marketing cultural objects referring to human experience. “The film Titanic” is based on a universal maritime experience; culture is not uniform and has no boundaries: it is porous and complex indeed, the use we make of these so called global communication media, which are suppose to put in touch immediately with any spot on the planet is astonishingly local.
But culture, if we really want to define it, designates in my view two things. In the first place,it is characterized by the process of acculturation, that is to say, the journey from one neighborhood to another that enables us too meet other people.
Secondly, culture is based on a singular choice by the individual when he decides. We are living through a far transformation of our mental processes of empirical science and of collective culture. It is this transformation that really makes me regret that I am no longer sixteen years. Without doubt, the major factor that influences the computing culture awareness yesterday, today and perhaps tomorrow remains the challenge which might sum up in the following.
1. To promote self-renewing society.
2. To promote the economic growth of the nation.
3. To promote the societal wellness and eye opener to globalization.
Science and Technology should be built on solid foundation for the cultural growth of computing in the 21st century.
Culture and Computing in the present era, which is sometimes called the age of science and technology, should provide a balance ethical way of life for humanities e.g. history, culture because the society is changing .
Gone are some of the older words of psychology such as generalizing, practicing, conditioning, memorizing or associating. They are either too vague to be useful to the theories Because the revolution of the computer and culture has given rise to new concepts of memory; learning and language, we need new words to reflect the changes. We must look closer at a few of these words and ideas to get the sense of a new definition of computing culture.
Computing culture and folks
Some teenagers seek their identity in what the computer is, while others define themselves in opposition to it. Some adapt to it to see themselves like others,some use it to see themselves as part or different from others.
For some, the computer helps in their socialization process, for others, it provides an escape from the uncertain world of emotions and relationships. Computers become in a world of highly changed and unpredictable feeling.
Every one is seeking for creating culture in the computer world; a culture that depends on practicing and generating new ideas of doing things better than the conventional approaches.
How can we define computing culture in a jet age? It is a world view inspired by computers and artificial intelligence. It sees intelligence and mind as dynamic streams of data, which it seeks to create or stimulate in the societal way. Some renowned Computer scientists are definitely making some genuine efforts to ensure that computing culture penetrates the entire society. These efforts are making limited impacts for numerous reasons .
These reasons are captured by varieties of responses given in online discussions.The discussion solicited answers to the following questions. Is culture of computing in decline? Are you too busy to get yourself involved? A few responses received are quoted here because they give a good insight into the state of computing and the reasons why the computing culture is poor in some parts of the world.
Kapinga Numba , Harare Zimbabwe,”In Africa we have first to overcome problem of hunger before we can concentrate on other things .This has nothing to do with computing computing culture but we do prioritize, and food comes first”.
Computing culture at all the levels of learning from the primary to the highest level must be made sufficiently attractive to engage the learners throughout life.
Scientific literacy and Computing Culture
Science and technology have become the bedrock for national development. They are used to distinguish between the civilized and uncivilized folks. The world today is based on level of scientific literacy;
Science is a systematic way of studying the universe while technology is the application of the knowledge to the environment (or a tool to change the world), Know-how is the roof of technology while Know-why is the bedrock of science.
For many decades, changes have taken place in our world ,(i) Accelerated growth of new in the science , new technologies , a new global economic order , new uses of leisure, time and changing demographics and all have implications for science.
Further more, scientific literacy is essential because science and technologies are both the backbone of economic change and the raw materials of international commerce.
Scientific literacy is the catch phrase of the computing culture discourse. All effort to defining scientific literacy is to enable schools national expectation for scientifically literate populace.
In a nutshell, Scientific Literacy is based on the benefit of the individual or the benefit of the society.
A scientifically literate person is one who is aware of and possesses skills necessary to deal with science related , social and personal issues one encounters in every day life. Here on earth, has led to technological development which rise to self reliant and sustained economy.
Arigbede Oladesanmi Oluwadamilola……………Author/Writer
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