Most important computing skills for a child to learn

[brong]

So cuddlefairy asked at pub last night - "what do you think are the 5 most important computing skills for a child to have coming out of school".

subtle-eye and I discussed this backwards and forwards for a while. In the end we settled on the following list (in order of agreeing on them). Keep in mind that we're trying to be pretty technology agnostic here, so we're

Comments

[catsidhe]

These are all uses of computers. I would have somewhere in there "a basic understanding of what it is that computers do and how they work

[actrealdon]

Logic is an important prerequisite for programming - although you can "record" macros without learning any programming.

Concepts like If...then, And, Or, etc. are integral to spreadsheeting and programming and people who come to programming without first understanding them struggle, in my experience.

It's probably bias from my work, but I'd put spreadsheeting (basic operation of) before multimedia and programming. Spreadsheets are used in many more jobs than either of those.

[pyrrha17]

The problem with the teaching of IT in high schools is that non-computer specialists are teaching it. You have some people who can't themselves competently use Word/Excel - or even type accurately - teaching kids out of a text book. Of course the pay in IT is almost double what teachers get, so there's not really any surprise.

Erm, what I was getting to - it's hard to teach many of these skills if you don't yourself use them... (not really answering your comment, but I deleted a few thoughts in between)... It's late, sorry.

[brong]

In theory that gets solved chicken-and-egg style by bootstrapping enough teachers with the knowledge that the next generation of teachers have learned it at school...

[cuddlefairy]

'it' changes so rapidly you haven't much chance of that

[subtle_eye]

One we added to that list on the drive back from pub ...

A knowledge of how to manage your privacy online and an awareness of computer security.
(i.e. opening attachments from random strangers is not such a great idea)

[brong]

Kate and I went over the list today after I'd posted it and came to the same conclusion. I'm going to re-think and post a new list in a bit :)

[pyrrha17]

I taught year seven IT (6 years ago). All the curriculum consisted of was teaching the kids the basics of Word and Excel. So the expectation back then was that kids left primary school even without those skills. There was _one_ boy who was competent on the computers and I'd bet had done some programming, but it most certainly wasn't the norm in my class.

So yes, some skills in basic programming would be good on leaving high school, but I certainly wouldn't expect that of 12 year olds. They should have been introduced to it as an example and have played around with logo or whatever, but actually calling their ability at that level a skill is a bit much.

I suspect we need clarification on Primary vs Secondary school.

[originaluddite]

Sorry if another has said this (too many comments to look at) but does word processing cover the ability to type. I think that one is important.