November + December 2011

interactions

leaves? How can one expect to train
a workforce that is constantly in
flux? And what happens to all
of the above when the organiza-
tion’s needs change yet again in
response to the dynamic ecosystem
of institutions in other sectors?

The research challenges that emerge from working with nonprofit organizations arise because of their unique role in harmonizing among other classes of institutions and organizations, because of the dynamic nature of the work, and because of the numerous constraints within which these organizations must operate. These research challenges do not belong to human-centered computing alone; they transcend disciplines and require broader collaborations.

Research with nonprofit organizations
provides a context for understanding
the need for computational literacy in
the real world. Dialogue about com-
putational literacy often happens
under the auspices of computer
science education. What should
undergraduate students who don’t
pursue degrees in computer science,
for example, know about comput-
ers, programming, computational
thinking, and/or the capabilities and
limitations of technology? Another
way to approach the issue, however,
is to better understand what needs
for computational literacy exist in
the real world. Many of the frustra-
tions expressed by nonprofit staff
members I’ve interviewed involved
investments they made in tech-
nology that had to be abandoned
when the consultant, IT volunteer,
or other local expert left the orga-
nization. Nonprofit organizations
are sites where more broad-based
computational literacy would be
immensely valuable. Merkel and
her colleagues make a compelling
argument for the use of participa-
tory research methods when work-
ing with nonprofit organizations so
that researchers don’t inadvertently
cause similar frustrations when
they leave [ 6]. Nonprofit staff and
volunteers need to own both the
decision-making process and the
technology itself; they need enough
expertise and empowerment to
maintain their own systems over
the long term. Beyond employing
participatory design methods to
respond to the needs of volunteers
and staff members at any one orga-
nization, however, are questions
about what kinds of scaffolding are
necessary, more generally, to help
staff and volunteers understand
their own information needs, to
evaluate the strengths and limita-
tions of various technologies, and to
set realistic expectations for what
any given technology can and can’t
do. What computational constructs
do staff members and volunteers
need to understand in order to
assess options and talk about them
in critical and meaningful ways
with others? What kinds of skills are
required for individuals within an
organization to function as learning
communities, sharing knowledge
about technology and helping new-
comers learn to use new systems?
How do we extrapolate from the
scaffolding, constructs, and skills
that are necessary in this context
an understanding, at least in part,
of what computer science education
should look like for more broad-
based computational literacy?