[moron4hire]

I think this vastly overestimates the difficulty in learning how to use a computer. How is it that entire generations of people were able to get through school with no computer classes whatsoever and still able to invent computers, the internet, the very software you're using to talk with us right now? Decades of research in interface design have gone into making computers easy to use, user friendly, and accessible.

Carpentry is a skill that needs to be trained. Using the tools safely and optimally isn't something that most raw beginners will be able to figure out on their own.

But computers: barring issues of socioeconomic status preventing access to them, the kids will do alright on their own.

[Retric]

Learning how to use a computer is like learning how to use a pen. It’s not binary there is a huge difference between knowing how to say surf the web and actually know how to use it for research.

Carpentry a great analogy as you can learn the basic skills to build a perfectly functional house in a few weeks. However, you can literally spend a lifetime mastering it. So, let’s not pretend the bare minimum of computer literacy is all there is to know.

Anti Vax people for example have fundamental issues with knowing how to utilize computer technology. They where ill prepared to separate fact from FUD and it’s causing real problems. Having 11 year olds writing papers that get graded is a great way to transition kids from basic literacy into mastery.

[bombolo]

And in school they don't teach how to use them effectively… or they wouldn't be using locked down google stuff.

[Retric]

Learning is a multi stage process. The military doesn’t start 17 year old kids on F-35 fighter jets. It’s the same deal here, the vastly lower cost option is good enough to be useful training.

Chromebooks are the baking soda equivalent in middle school school chemistry experiments. Cheap and instructive is considered good enough.

[ElevenLathe]

I think the valuable part would be the soft skills of thinking and working while having 12 things blinking and beeping for attention a keystroke away. This is how I have to work -- need to be available on Slack, watch out for urgent email, keep an eye on some dashboard for a service that is acting strange but not in a way that anyone is calling an incident yet, watch for Outlook reminders of meetings coming up). You're right that pencil and notebook is probably a better way to /retain information/ but that might need to be a separate kind of lesson from one about /existing in a 21st century information environment/.

[asah]

LoL watching over-50s using computers is pretty painful...