Milestone 12...more thoughts on Snyder

Here at Pitt during my first semester I took a class called "Introduction to Information Systems." A majority of what I read in the Snyder book was a repeat of material I had already covered. Again I feel it is meant to be an introduction and provide guidelines to what it takes to be considered "fluent"...however vague that term is.
Continuing on with my assessment of Chapters 8-10, 12, and 17.
There is some discussion of the processes behind how the computer works, and other things which I found to be a repeat of material already covered in other classes.
Around chapter 10 though we dive into some new material. Algorithms. The word itself is something you know you know, but can be difficult to define. Personally I see it as a set of steps leading to a desired result. Kind of like a baking recipe. Snyder feels that if we know the processes behind why a computer does what it does, one will be one step closer to fluency.
There are five steps to an algorithm. Input, output, definiteness, effectiveness, and finitness. Applying that to baking (I work as a baker right now)...input are the ingredients (eggs, milk, butter, etc.), output is the cake or final product, definiteness are the steps you take combining the input to produce the output (mix 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, etc.), effectiveness is like if you did all the steps right in the definitieness stage then there is no reason your cake shouldn't turn out to be delicious without any extra means being taken, and finiteness when the cake is done and the whole process is stopped.
I had never been introduced to algorithms or algorithmic thinking. It was really interesting and I found that I really understood more when I took what I was reading and applied to to a process such as baking or something else you might not really think as having an appliable algorithm. For the most part when I thought "algorithm" I thought "math" or "numbers". But that does not have to be the case.
Again maybe I take for granted that most people know about email or computer viruses. Snyder devotes a whole chapter to discussing email, passwords, and computer viruses. At the end he talks a little about the sticky situation of copyright. Copyright is another topic that is brought up in a majority of my class. Usually it relates to print material though, not electronic. Although I think many of the same issues can be had with both formats.
Finally in chapter 17 we talk about digital security. Privacy seems to be a big issue after things like "The Patriot Act". There is a lot of discussion about the different definitions of privacy and how it is applied. I didn't know there were so many previous privacy acts, but it makes sense when you think about it. When I read the section on idenity theft I kept thinking of those television commercials with the fraudulant credit card purchases. They make me laugh...not the situation, but how it is presented.
One other topic that I think was presented in just about every course I've taken is the importance of backing up your work. Early on it was "make sure you save" and now with all the different things that can befall your computer it's "do you have a backup copy." And we have all experienced that with something getting deleted, a disk messing up, the format in general you saved material on, emails not sending, etc.
So I guess in terms of how Snyder views the term "fluency" and his goals for this book there was a lot of good information presented and issues raised. This may be a lot for someone who is victim of the digital divide to handle all at once, so I think it is important for these issues to be presented in a timely manner during the process of instruction for greater effectiveness.