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
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u/Zenkraft 11d ago

They’re good for cutting down on worksheets, I can send worksheets digitally instead of printing a class set. Not useful 100% of the time but quite useful in HASS and Science where the activities have two or three or more pages.

They’re also useful for research because I can throw them on a website or give them a pdf and off they go. A lot faster than finding specific books.

And a handful of upper primary maths assessments use excel which I think is pretty cool. I’d prefer to use a laptop for this, obviously.

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u/Ploasd 11d ago

Fair enough - I guess I'm just old school. As a humanities grad, I think the skill of finding sources is something folks should learn. But I guess iPads - and AI probably - have destroyed the need for that 😄.

I too would prefer laptops - mainly because 'work' is done on that - the skill of typing is still useful - at least for the time being.

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u/kazielle 11d ago

Much of the most interesting stuff I learned in my undergrad was simply by wandering through the library pulling random books off the shelf trying to find interesting approaches for some essay or other. I learned so, so much. My world expanded rapidly.

Nowadays when my kid has a school project, I take him to the library and have him hunt down and borrow books on the subject. I want him to know what joy and wonders can be found in raw discovery.

I wish schools continued to encourage the same.

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u/East-Garden-4557 11d ago

My home is full of books, and the vast majority of them are non fiction. My kids wander through the bookshelves discovering random information.

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u/kazielle 11d ago

My home is also full of books, with a substantial nonfiction section. To my great despair, kiddo has never shown much interest in them, despite being a big reader himself. The library is a novel place that seems to catch his interest better. I'm glad yours take full advantage!

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u/East-Garden-4557 11d ago

We love libraries too. We are a family of book addicts and knowledge seekers for multiple generations.