Conquering technophobia: Preparing faculty for today

The constantly changing world of technology creates excitement and an obligation for faculty of schools of nursing to address computer literacy in the curricula at all levels. The initial step in the process of meeting the goals was to assist the faculty in becoming computer literate so that they could foster and encourage the same in the students. The implementation of The Cure for Technophobia included basic and advanced computer skills designed to assist the faculty in becoming comfortable and competent computer users. The applications addressed included: introduction to windows, electronic mail, word processing, presentation and database applications, library on-line searches of literature databases, introduction to internet browsers and a computerized testing program. Efforts were made to overcome barriers to computer literacy and promote the learning process. Familiar, competent, computer literate individuals were used to conduct the classes to accomplish this goal. The results of implementing The Cure for Technophobia indicated increased productivity and independence of the faculty including: the ability to use e-mail to communicate with individuals and groups, within and outside the school; generation of course and scholarly papers and presentations; updating the faculty database; navigation of the internet/world wide web for educational purposes; and ability to produce, edit and update test question banks with little or no assistance. An additional outcome was and continues to be the integration of computer related activities into student courses.