cathou said:
AuronFtw said:
Na, kids are terrible at technology. They can, sometimes, find their way through easy, consumer-designed interfaces enough to find the setting they want, but by and large they're ignorant about the majority of the devices they use.
They don't know how the devices work, they don't know how to fix them. They can't troubleshoot software or hardware problems outside of the most basic "turn it off and on again." They've never built a computer, they've never taken parts out of a laptop and replaced them, and what they're "used to" are largely proprietary corporation-approved locked devices that offer them little freedom as to what they can download or change. Being able to play minecraft on ipad does not make a 6 year old "good at computers."
If you want a more in-depth writeup on this topic, you can check out this blog post [http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/]. It covers everything I've said and more.
i dont agree with what they say in that blog. basically it's like saying that you are not a real driver if you cannot tear apart your car motor and built it back.
No, he's merely addressing the claim that people make: kids are "experts" at computers. People who are "experts" at cars
are expected to be able to tear apart motors and build them again. It's expected that they even do it as a hobby, and have plenty of practice and experience with it. People who only drive cars and know nothing about them aren't "car experts" in much the same way that people who watch cat videos on youtube aren't "computer experts."
99% of people doesnt need to know exactly how a computer work, they need to use it. it's not because you cant program a driver in command line that you dont know how to use a computer.
He qualified his statement by basically saying what he meant by "can't use a computer." Kids can, in fact, turn on their iphones, load up the internet browser, and watch cat videos. They can also log on their family computer and go on instagram and post pictures of their lunch. That requires nearly no skill or training whatsoever; it's not remarkable. When those devices stop functioning, or even throw up simple errors, the kid's inability to fix it betrays his ignorance of the device. Again, keep in mind that this is in response to someone saying "I guess these days you must find that the kids know more about computers than the teachers." Which is, in fact, commonly heard/stated. Not being able to fix basic (!) problems definitely counts against their knowledge of computers.
kids dont have natural knowledge of technology, but they use it since they are babies. so they grow up with it and they have a instinct that develop.
That was true of kids in the 80s and 90s - that is no longer true of kids today. In that era, most operating systems, and electronic devices in general, required a shitload of effort to set up and maintain. I got used to installing operating systems and constantly tweaking drivers when I was a child, because that's what windows 95, 98, 2000, and even XP required. In today's world, kids are growing up without that experience; they're using proprietary, locked devices that urge them to "send it in for repairs" when anything goes wrong, often being designed in such a way to make personal repairs impossible or a huge pain in the ass. Those devices remove the entire sandbox learning function that older devices mandated, and thus the "environment" of technology for kids now is very different. They don't learn those basics as part of the tech environment anymore. As the writer already pointed out, Windows 7 and OSX are very automated as far as drivers go. They attempt to detect new devices and obtain and install drivers for them automatically, and by and large, they succeed. But that means anyone using them will remain ignorant as to what drivers even are or how they work, so in the off chance that a driver error does occur, or you're using an obscure device that requires specific drivers, those people are going to be doubly fucked.
it give them an edge over someone that have just recently start to use the technology, but it doesnt give them IT knowledge.
Agreed. I think one of the more important things that kids learn is clicking on settings and messing around with various buttons, because that often leads to a fix, or at least gives you a better idea of how that program/device functions. Adults/older people are much more wary of jumping into all the settings and clicking things - partly because back in the day, that could be disastrous. Devices now are much more forgiving, and nearly everything can be reverted or fixed.
but i think that child today that grow up will assimilate the knowledge faster if they take an IT course for exemple versus someone who didnt used technology when they were Young and that would take the same class.
Yes, quite. But it's even better if they're exposed to tech knowledge *during* their critical period of development, so it becomes secondhand. They don't have to go into IT as a career, but in today's era, a bit of troubleshooting and tech knowledge is definitely not going to go to waste.
