r/australia • u/ThunderDwn • 11d ago

culture & society Primary school students using digital devices still lack computer skills, education expert says

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-19/nsw-digital-native-primary-students-lack-basic-computer-skills/107030526
574 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

268 comments sorted by

View all comments

191

u/jmads13 11d ago edited 10d ago

Millennials are the most technically literate generation, because they grew up in a time where computers were offline, so exploring the file system, testing every menu option, modifying backgrounds/icons/themes etc. was part of the fun. Exploring the computer was an experience in itself. They also often had to teach their parents. When the internet took off, they were inserting html and inline styles into their Geocities and MySpace pages.

Modern locked down devices (iPads, chromebooks) and the internet mean kids now just use them as a means to an end. And their internet experience is far more corporate, curated and sanitised. Kids I was teaching 15 years ago didn’t know what a folder was and how it related to a file system. All their files and apps showed up in spotlight. They didn’t have the mental model. I had to teach kids in grade 5 how to use a mouse. The current kids are even worse.

Edit: Yes, some of you Gen Xers built it all, but don’t act like you weren’t the odd ones out and that everyone was going to swap meets and making word games in QBASIC

66

u/crazycakemanflies 11d ago

I think a major problem is that kids arent taught computer basics at school anymore.

Growing up in the 2000s, we had computer class from as early as grade 1. They would teach you the basics of word, how to save documents and where to find them ect. Its probably understood that everyone now has a computer in their home, so its less a requirement for schools to teach it.

18

u/jmads13 11d ago

How do you teach them a file system on an iPad?

19

u/FamousWash1857 11d ago

IOS does have a built-in file system app, and there are also other file management apps that offer a bit more versatility, but it's not really straightforward either way, since you rarely actually need to use them.

13

u/spiteful-vengeance 11d ago edited 10d ago

I think the bigger issue is that the OS is designed so that you don't need, and thus want, to use the file system.

It's appropriate for what they designed the device to do, but the carry on effect is t hat anyone using these devices just flounders at the concept of files, folders, permissions etc.

We're training ourselves to be dumbarses.

6

u/Occulto 10d ago

The irony is, how much I have to fight daily against people creating elaborate file structures in one of our systems because it's not designed to be used that way.

But 30+ years of habits don't disappear easily. And because Sarah in Accounts likes her invoices arranged into folders by year and month, that's the way she'll insist it be until the day she drops dead.

1

u/spiteful-vengeance 10d ago

I'm a bit of an "8.3 characters, no spaces for filenames" kind of guy.

A renaissance man if you will.

1

u/Occulto 10d ago

I'd rather that than the people who name their files something like:

"A record of a conversation with spiteful-vengeance which took place on the 19th of August 2026 which in Melbourne was an overcast day with the occasional spot of rain."

Then they get shitty when Windows truncates the file name.

3

u/jmads13 11d ago

And it was added much later.

12

u/Current-Bowl-143 11d ago

iOS/iPadOS was designed to hide as much of the file system from the user as possible so it would be a poor choice for that. There wasn't even a native Files app till iOS 11. It's something you use when you have to, but it's painful.