[SLUG] Re: Scarborough Digest, Vol 103, Issue 8

[Pete Redwood]

On Thursday 29 September 2005 14:33, scarborough-request at mailman.lug.org.uk 
wrote:
> I took CLAIT 1 several years ago.  Basically it's a course offering a
> variety of modules (Word, Excel etc.) of which you need to complete
> three modules to pass.  The standard is fairly basic for CLAIT 1.  To
> use Word as an example, it involves opening, saving, inserting text,
> search and replace, setting margins and a couple of other things.  As I
> say, pretty basic and it's that level across the modules.  Topics are
> covered in greater depth as you progress through levels 2 & 3, but I
> believe CLAIT has been superseded by ECDL, which like lessons to drive
> a car have naff all to do with knowing how to drive a car, ECDL has
> naff all to do with knowing the best way to use a computer.  In both
> cases you just get to pass a test then really start to learn.
Sorry. Couldn't resist this.
CLAIT (Computer Literacy and Information Technology) has now been completely 
re-written and comes in three levels each of which require only two modules 
to complete - one compulsory and one free choice from a list of six. There is 
Certificate and a Diploma version of each. Level 1 is absolute basics, . 
CLAIT Plus takes it a little bit further and CLAIT Advanced takes it to 
something like a useful level. From there you can progress to MIcrosoft 
Office Specialist but ECDL ( European Computer Driving Licence) is seen as 
the usual progression from CLAIT Plus, is in two parts and cover most things 
that most people require to know about word processing and spreadsheets, with 
presentations and basic databases thrown in for good measure. The modules for 
both CLAIT and ECDL are based exclusivley on Microsoft but teach techniques 
that can usually be applied to Open Office of any other office type software.
CLAIT was developed by OCR (an amalgamation of the University Oxford and 
Cambridge Examination Board and the Royal Society of Arts). ECDL was 
developed by the British Computer Society in an attempt to produce something 
more meaningful than CLAIT.

Regards
Pete