We don't teach kids to play computer games, yet they develop gaming
literacy
just fine on their own. They can figure out the rules, learn on their
own,
from their friends, try and err and ultimately play these games.
There is no
class for Warcraft and we don't send kids to class learn how to play
Sims.
That we adults believe that basic computers skills are critical to
student's
technology literacy doesn't necessarily make it so. In my experience,
children will solve problems and learn the skills required to tackle
them so
long as the feedback loops exist. We are prone to get in the way.
Years from now, the idea that we have classes to teach kids how to
recognize
the basic patterns of using software will seem as quaint as the
notion of
teaching someone to make a phone call by dialing a rotary phone.
That we, as a generation, needed the five-steps to learn this stuff
doesn't
mean that it should be the norm.
This isn't to say 'skills' are unimportant. Complex human activities
require
skill, but I would suggest that these skills can and should be
developed as
an integral aspect of the learning activity and not separate from it.
There is nothing sacred about having skills in Microsoft Word, Excel,
Photoshop or Insert-your-favorite-software. Today's Word is tomorrow's
Wordstar.
As a software engineer/designer, the only constant we believe is in
the idea
that newer technology will let us design better interfaces. Nothing
today is
sacred. Software is "soft--malleable by definition. Our expectation
is that
people have the cognitive abilities and experience to see patterns, make
connections, relate, try and fail on their own. And their expectation is
that we do preciesly that to make things easier and fun.
We should be teaching writing, not wordprocessing. We should be applying
math, not teaching Excel. We should be blogging, not teaching Wordpress.
my humble 2cents
Ernest Koe
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