Do Kids Still Need Courses In Basic Computer Skills?
from the readin,-ritin,-and-that-other-thing dept
Stats out of the UK say that the number of students taking IT and computer courses is falling. Fewer students are taking IT courses at the GSCE level, or at ages 13-16, and consequently fewer are studying and getting qualifications in it at sixth-form level, or when they're 16-18, and the country's Office for Standards in Education says this is cause for concern given the importance of IT skills in adult working life. It is certainly true that modern, advanced economies demand workers with computer skills, but perhaps the growing pervasiveness of home computers means that students are getting sufficient hands-on training, and don't have as great a need for dedicated computer coursework as they once did? Also, the Office says that the schools doing the best job of teaching IT and computer skills are those that spread computer resources across multiple subjects, and don't use them solely in specific IT courses. One would imagine that students' general computer skills have risen across the board over the last several years, and they pick them up through their other coursework, and of course, their personal lives. Curriculum should adjust to reflect this, and if there is less call for general computer skills, IT coursework should be refocused to provide students interested in IT careers the best base possible from which to work.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: computer skills, kids, uk
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Hmm
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Life : A Thing You do not have.
I don't mean WoW either.
Just, wow.
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Needed
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Re: Hmm
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I humbly disagree. I started using computers when I was four years old, playing with ASCII symbols in a DOS program. I couldn't really read but I sure could type what I wanted. Once I learned to read, my typing got even better.
Starting in middle school, I had teachers try to teach me 'how to type', which was a big waste of time for everybody involved. Now my own kids use computers at home. Same problem. By the time their school gets around to 'teaching' them, they will have developed their own method for typing, and they will likely be just as quick and accurate as I am.
So I think a keyboarding class is pretty useless. You can't start before they learn to read but kids are using home computers before they learn to read. Kindergarten is just about too late.
However, I could see all students taking a typing proficiency test, and kids who are slow or have too many errors could be offered a remedial course.
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Re: Life : A Thing You do not have.
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Skills is typing 60 wpm and using excel properly. Much less exciting.
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Poor Folk
I think the "doesn't everyone have a PC in the home" argument fails to consider those for whom the answer is no.
Poor families, families with terribly old PCs, families with many people sharing a single PC with no Internet connection, etc. All of these kids are at a disadvantage, and good public education should level the field a little.
Assuming everyone has a good PC available at home and it's hooked into broadband is like assuming every kid gets a good night's sleep and a nutritious breakfast. It just ain't reality.
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Then I noticed the document was full of spelling, grammatical errors, and he had not written a Cover letter.
This guy is going to be graduating from a state college in Washington with a degree in business administration.
I feel bad for him.
Surely, if his classes had made him use a word processor, he would be much more literate. but, he is Effed.
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Computer skills = Knowing how to copy and paste, defragment the drive and making certain all system patches are up to date.
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Outsourcing!
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So no, kids don't need typing classes. They will develop their own style on their own.
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What Are "Computer Skills"?
This is the difference between “training” and “education”: one teaches you the way through one particular maze, which will be obsolete by the time you leave school, while the other gives you principles that you can apply to any maze in which you may find yourself.
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Do Kids Still Need Courses In Basic Computer Skills?
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I ended up getting a Commodore 64 for Christmas and teaching myself simple programming by reading the manual that came with it. I also read magazines like Compute! and bought books of type-in games. Eventually I learned some simple Assembly. I never got good enough to write playable games, but I did create some small utilities and such. Along the way I learned things like copying disks and files, directly editing the contents of a disk, etc.
When I switched to the Amiga, I had pretty much lost my interest in programming due to the increase in complexity that came with a 16-Bit system. I figured that by the time I got comfortable with it, something else would have come along. However, I was still familiar with manipulating files, learning new programs, etc. I could easily learn and use a new word processor program while others struggled to learn how to use just one.
Now that I use Windows, it's pretty much the same as far as using the system and learning new programs.
The part that amazes me though, is that most other people seem to be downright clueless where computer are concerned. They have no idea how to copy or move files, how to change associations, etc. If something isn't saved to their desktop, they have no idea how to find it. Ask someone to look inside a file to see what the header says and they'll double-click it because that's the only thing that they know how to do with a file. Tell someone that they can change the way a program works by editing the program's INI file and changing some of the parameters, and all you'll get is a blank stare. Most people have no idea of all the different things they can do with a computer. They basically see it as an expensive box that can do a few select things.
As for typing, I never learned to touch type. I developed my own style that uses about 3 three fingers on each hand. I won't claim that I'm as good as a real typist, because I'm not, but I'm not a hunt-&-peck typist either. I tried to learn touch typing once, but I just couldn't get used to it.
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The country is doomed
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white kids in the suburbs... probably not
if there were a way for people to learn about computers and the internet (not just how to use windows and word) so it dispelled some of the magic that seems to surround computers, and maybe introduced people to some of the culture of the internet, maybe there wouldn't be so many people supporting stupid laws and it would cut down on some of the hurt feelings that come with learning the hard lessons.
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Computer Science vs Basic Computer Usage
I now live in the US (working for a very large software company) and had 2 sons graduate high school in the last few years, and the computer classes they were offered were nothing more than very basic windows and Word usage and some photoshop skills. Not exactly the same thing.
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What was technical about the class you might ask? Writing memos. Oh, and learning 'Gestalt Principles' that had absolutely nothing to do with the papers we were writing (which was absolutely seconded by the English major in my group).
The course has apparently been redesigned. Probably partly because my class shocked the English Dept's secretary by actually taking an almost full hour to fill course evaluations, and some people asking for staplers to attach pre-written, multi-page (12 point font) evals.
My Computer Science department dropped it as a requirement the school year after I took it, though. Yes, I'm still bitter about the class. What a waste of my loans.
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However, I think that some children can benefit from typing classes, but perhaps it should be more of a tutoring program for children who demonstrate need rather than a full-fledged class.
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The pervasiveness of home computing removes some of the stigma and perhaps fear of computers that may have existed in previous generations. It also means that the basic operation of a keyboard, mouse and internet browser are no longer necessary. But, I doubt that most kids have learned to use a word processor and spreadsheet effectively and other tools they would be expected to know in the workplace. They probably haven't been taught how to effectively filter the information they get from Google and Wikipedia to get something truthful and useful.
As for the number of kids taking computing courses, well that's inevitable. I.T. was seen for a long time as a "get rich quick" scheme, a road to guaranteed high incomes. This is no longer the case, and as many jobs get outsourced to other countries the students looking for their fortunes are turning back to MBAs and the like. If you're not inherently tech-minded, I.T. has lost its lustre as a career, so less students are studying it.
However, that's got nothing to do with whether or not students need to be taught basic I.T. skills - they'll still need them regardless of their career path.
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Re: Needed
Proofreading your own spelling might be a good start if you're going to criticise theirs ;)
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Typing Classes
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But hey it's job security for me...so let me rethink that..lol
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As a PC tech tech, i talk to a lot of people on a daily basis. The kids don't need the basic computer skills that adults do. Including people my own age.
I seriously think that if you buy a new or used PC yo need to take a basic PC course.
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Phear d33z 5ki||z
Fear them, indeed.
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Phear d33z 5ki||z
Fear them, indeed.
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Such basic computer knowledge is like speech or hand-printing: the only reasons to take it in secondary school are if you are extra-ordinarily deficient, or if you intend to become a specialist in your post-secondary education.
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Teaching Computers to students
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computers.
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computer
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