Telling young zoomers to “just switch to linux” is nuts some of these ipad kids have never even heard of a cmd.exe or BIOS you’re throwing them to the wolves
i taught programming to middle school kids last summer and I don’t think you understand how bad it’s getting.
a lot of these kids don’t know what a “folder” is. some of them don’t even know how to right click. I asked my class to put a folder on their desktop and half of the students did not know how. these are like, 11-13 year olds who’s parents thought they were tech literate enough to sign them up for a programming class. most of them did not know how to add a bookmark on their browser. most of them could not touch type.
basic computer literacy is evaporating because everyone does everything on their phone now, but schools are getting rid of any computer classes because “all the kids are using computers all the time anyways!”
I hope they’ll learn more as they get older but many of them wont. the divide between “basic user” and “advanced user” is quickly shifting towards knowing the most simple functions of a computer, and the more people who don’t know how to correctly use their devices the easier it is to sell them shit they don’t need.
…what the fuck? wow, I didn’t even realize this was a developing problem jeez.
Y’all don’t even understand.
I teach primary school and I had a composite year 3 and 4 classroom (small Australian suburb school) for my first year (8-10 year olds) back in 2022. At this age is probably around the time I started learning about all these computer things bc I had a dedicated ICT class but society would have you believe that these days, kids already know all of it by this time.
Now at this school, these kids had STEM as a specialist subject but the tech part was mostly to do with programming and parts of a machine and all that jazz. Not so much the basic mechanics of a computer and it’s use (tho they do learn here and there bc it’s just embedded into the learning that hey you turn on a computer and access internet and log in here blah blah blah).
But I did a big information report research project with them in the final term and the amount of computer literacy issues that just popped up as we went along.
Googling basic information (didn’t know how to find google, didn’t know how to find information using google), clicking on website links and looking for information, using search bars WITHIN websites, basic typing posture.
ALL OF IT I had to explicitly teach.
Knowing that my Year 4s would be heading up to Year 5 where A LOT of assessment involves typing up writing pieces and using laptops with increasing frequency, I was genuinely horrified how little they actually knew how to do.
One of our major statewide (nationwide??) assessments, once they get to Year 5, involve typed writing pieces. And the way some of these kids used only one finger to do all the work???
I literally dedicated a couple sessions a week to typing practice and covering the basic parts of websites. What is a search bar? What is the refresh button for? What is a hyperlink? What is the home page? What is a URL? How do we use Google effectively?? (Keywords as opposed to typing whole questions into the search bar). How can you tell a website is safe or not?? How do you make a PowerPoint? How can you add images to a PowerPoint? How can you make a PowerPoint more interesting? How do you save a PowerPoint?
OH MY GOD HOW DO YOU COPY PASTE??? Like the use of the ctrl button was a revelation to them.
Now as time has passed, I acknowledge that my typing posture is shit. I use like 5 and a half fingers at best. But you bet your ass I can touch type and the way my kids reacted when I demonstrated that I did not even have to look at my screen to type while it took them a solid 20 seconds to find the s key.
Computer literacy at this time is wildly under-taught given how much these kids will be working in the digital space in future.