A challenge to the GUI-centric paradigm of information education for the general public

Abstract

We contrast the current paradigm of information education for the general public with that of mathematics and of foreign languages. This contrast exposes the questionable mentality, in IT education, of emphasizing ease of use at the cost of life-span of knowledge and the combinatorial nature of knowledge. We propose for educators to carefully choose only software tools that conform to the longevity and combine-ability criteria. This includes insisting on teaching technologies that are cross-platform and support open interfaces. The prevalent view of information technology as a field of commerce is identified as a possible source of confusion and the free/libre/open source software movement as a possible cure. GUI and ease of use are more clearly seen as convenience and help, instead of the main body of knowledge when we constantly remind ourselves of the analogy. Hopefully investment in future IT education for the general public will have longer term effectiveness and produce the combinatorial explosion effect as we see in other fields of education.