Addressing the Digital Divide in Contemporary Biology: Lessons from Teaching UNIX

Trends Biotechnol. 2017 Oct;35(10):901-903. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.06.007. Epub 2017 Jul 15.

Abstract

Life and medical science researchers increasingly rely on applications that lack a graphical interface. Scientists who are not trained in computer science face an enormous challenge analyzing high-throughput data. We present a training model for use of command-line tools when the learner has little to no prior knowledge of UNIX.

Keywords: command line interface; computational biology; education; training.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Literacy*
  • Electronic Data Processing*
  • Genomics / education*
  • Genomics / methods
  • Programming Languages*
  • User-Computer Interface*