摘要：It is commonly assumed that IT professionals, for instance, programmers, acquire their computing skills through formal training, and that by undertaking courses in computing, users will also gain the knowledge and skills required for independent use. This study describes from a practice -oriented viewpoint how university researchers acquire their computing expertise. Interviews of 44 researchers representing four different disciplines (environmental biology, nursing science, literature/cultural studies and history) reveal that researchers develop their computing expertise mainly through their social networks. Departments in which researchers use similar programs and collaborate also in other respects form communities of practice enabling collaborative learning and problem-solving. In the humanities, researchers typically work alone and do not necessarily use similar programs or generally discuss their computer use and problems with each other. Without a social and discursive context in which interpretations about fruitful uses of software in scientifi c work are formed, users have diffi culties in keeping themselves up-to-date and having their needs for computer support in work-related issues met. Courses in computing were often experienced as unhelpful because of their temporal and sociocultural distance from concrete work processes. The fi ndings indicate that computing expertise can not be easily transmitted or moved from one sociocultural context to another, it is, in essence, as argued by Orlikowski, knowing enacted in practice.
