Sunday, February 15, 2009

Re: 21st Century Computer Skills

Great discussion so far. This is a topic close to my heart. To further
clarify my thoughts from before, let me offer the following ideas (aka, How
To Think Like a Geek).

It seems to me that...

1. It is not about having skills in specific software programs, it is
about having generally adaptive thinkers/users of technology
2. it is not 'general software skills' vs 'specific programs'. We need to
stop thinking of software as requiring skills. There is nothing skilled
about being good Microsoft Word user.
1. Incidentally, if I get resumes that list software programs as
skills, they go into 'filed' bin
3. Its about having patterns of understanding--cognitive tools--that
lead let students discover new solutions and use-patterns on their own
4. It's not about being a good Excel/Word/Powerpoint user, it is about
knowing how to communicate ideas with these stuff
5. That we have people today who can't do Excel or Word doesn't mean that
the failure was not teaching enough computer skills.
6. Perhaps, the lack of general basic technology literacy among some
people today is precisely a reflection of why our traditional models of
teaching 'computing' don't work in the first place.
7. All specific software 'skills' can be taught by showing someone how to
find the 'help' button or how to search google.
1. i.e. "If I don't know how to do something, I know how to find out
how."
8. New technology has disrupted the old ways of communicating. Just
ask the newspaper companies.
9. Our 'standards' about style, format and form are diminishing in value
everyday. Insisting on having a Microsoft Word processed 'essay' will seem
like asking for a type-written essay.
10. The real standard is not "What is the Right Way" but "What is the
Best/Fastest/Clearest/Most Creative" way.
11. There will always be defenders of the old regime on the grounds of
needing to teach control, discipline or appropriate style...
12. but the Remix generation is already here (Lesig's term, not mine) -
and if we don't get with the program, we'll be the ones taking classes about
how to use Flickr circa 2020
13. Writing as we know it, is dying.
1. "Good writing is dead. Long Live Good Writing".
14. Perhaps, the stories we tell ourselves about how the sort of
'skills' students need today are less about the students' problems then they
are about our own anxieties about the relevance of our knowledge and
abilities.
15. Nurture the internal geek or be ruled by them.

Cheers

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