Computers - A Core Educational Subject?
User68571
Posts: 3,901 Forum Member
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How come two people of the same age can have such vast differences in the ability to use a computer? My other half and I both use PC's all day long as our jobs, but yet if you ask my other half to do anything other than save an Excel file or Word file they're absolutely baffled. If for instance you said..'set your default internet search engine to google' they'd be stumped and equating it to solving a rubbix cube blindfolded while being doused in burning petrol....well slight over exaggeration there 
With the increasing use of IT, is it time being 'computer literate' was taught at the same in place of some other subject? Make it a core subject and not something that's optional? I'm not talking about learning to write code...but simple things such as
Connecting to Wifi
How to use search engines properly (ie Keywords)
How to install/uninstall a program
Different Browsers
Usage of key software (ie Excel or Word type programs)
How to reset a PC and start afresh
etc
I just can't get over how someone can spend hours at PC everyday but are unable to do anything, and why people get scared of a machine that will do (99% of the time) only what you want it to do??!!
I'm kinda getting to the point where I think it's akin to not knowing how to tell the time or tie your shoe laces.
With the increasing use of IT, is it time being 'computer literate' was taught at the same in place of some other subject? Make it a core subject and not something that's optional? I'm not talking about learning to write code...but simple things such as
Connecting to Wifi
How to use search engines properly (ie Keywords)
How to install/uninstall a program
Different Browsers
Usage of key software (ie Excel or Word type programs)
How to reset a PC and start afresh
etc
I just can't get over how someone can spend hours at PC everyday but are unable to do anything, and why people get scared of a machine that will do (99% of the time) only what you want it to do??!!
I'm kinda getting to the point where I think it's akin to not knowing how to tell the time or tie your shoe laces.
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Note to self....proof read next time
I'm pretty sure a teenager with wifi on their smartphone can connect up to a router.
Users vary, some have no interest in how a pc works, they just want it to work. I'm not sure about only doing what you want it to do. Most of the problems are that users fail to understand what they have asked the application to do.
That's a fair point,I often forget we left school a few years longer than I thought!!
I suppose then if teenagers are fully fledged IT users in the modern world then there's no need for any extra lessons. I suspect there'll be a few though who are unable to do much more than browse and update Twitter etc.
If they're all clued up then I think it's:
/thread
You do IT (aka ICT) at school, but only certain schools insist on ICT being a compulsory subject taken at GCSE, it's not a 'core' GCSE like English or Maths is etc.
1) finding the Help function and/or identifying relevant information
2) understanding what it is trying to say
3) translating what you think it says on to the screen in front of you
There is also the assumption of the basics of operation (click vs drag etc) and what the things on the screen are called but self-help depends on those three above.
That reference went straight over my head! So no they aren't!
But quite interesting if you search 'Cmorris' his DS profile page is the first google hit.
My Dad does this. Every few weeks his laptop has to be dipped in disinfectant. He then goes right ahead and installs all the same crap again. No matter how many times we tell him.
That would get on my bloody nerves! Especially if I'd carefully explained to him what would happen if he didn't uncheck little boxes when he was installing software.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
There are plans to change from teaching how to use Microsoft Office to teaching programming. I'm not sure that's a sensible decision for the majority of pupils, and I seriously wonder where they hope to get the necessary teachers from.
If your other half works on a computer all day long and can do their job perfectly well without having to set a default search engine, where's the problem?
A computer is a tool. I use one for work, but there are functions I need to use, and others I don't.
That's putting the horse properly before the cart. :cool:
OP has a point though, some folks are just wilfully ignorant.
This sounds like an excellent idea to me. When I was at school Microsoft Office didn't exist, we learnt programming with BBC basic and a bit of assembly language too, much more useful than how to use a word processor or spreadsheet - you can pick that up easily enough when you need to, it's hardly an academic subject.