Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
1–10 of 30 posts
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#2I have coworkers who program and can't troubleshoot. Too often I see people "do it for them" (I'm also guilty of this on occasion). My work offers training for most things. Surprisingly how to investigate or communicate issues isn't trained.
Does everyone need to do everything, or can we recognize others have talents we don't? I suspect the larger exercise is "learning to learn"
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#3I loved this article when it was first written and I still love it now.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#4I have coworkers who program and can't troubleshoot. Too often I see people "do it for them" (I'm also guilty of this on occasion). My work offers training for most things. Surprisingly how to investigate or communicate issues isn't trained. Does everyone need to do everything, or can we recognize others have talents we don't? I suspect the larger exercise is "learning to learn"
What's really amazing is that most people can't do biology. I mean, we're literally made of biology, and yet most people have to go to (or at least see youtube videos by) specialists called physical therapists, physicians, and the like in order to fix things that break. Heck, right now I'm blindly taking some white pills, made by a chemical factory and sold OTC at a supermarket, for some back pain. I wouldn't have a clue how to do this on my own without someone making it easy. :D
Computer oriented people made tools, and to make bank they decided to make software allowing the marketing of these tools to the general public. You build it, you figure out how to make it work for the public you're selling it to. I mean we've done this with automobiles.
I've got sympathy for the guy who wrote the article when network settings are blocking the fine-tuned running of these systems. But that's what an IT person's job is for: to navigate between systems and policies for the regular user.
Edit to add: > Ask them to upgrade their hard-drive or their RAM and they break out in a cold sweat.
When I was 28 and decided to personally change the spark plugs and plug cables in my car I was very anxious. Fortunately the Chilton manual told me exactly what to do. The only minor problem was I chose the wrong kind of plug (they were advertised as better, but on a forum people mentioned to only use the copper ones in my particular vehicle).
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#5I've previously had software engineers on my team who didn't know how to update DNS settings on their computer or what a MAC address was. Not everyone gets into a field out of curiosity.
It's the same as most people knowing how to drive but not being able to rebuild an engine or even replace their own windshield wipers.
But I believe school curriculums should include some exposure to general computing as a way to make everyday life easier.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#6Do you value kids’ time less than yours? You get paid to understand these pointless bits of complexity that have been deliberately added to keep your job safe! The kids have perceived right away that the value of a computer is in saving time, not sitting down and role playing a scientist.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#7I have coworkers who program and can't troubleshoot. Too often I see people "do it for them" (I'm also guilty of this on occasion). My work offers training for most things. Surprisingly how to investigate or communicate issues isn't trained. Does everyone need to do everything, or can we recognize others have talents we don't? I suspect the larger exercise is "learning to learn"
It's incredibly hard to teach the skill of troubleshooting. You can teach a list of procedure to go through. But you can't teach this almost horse whisperer type ability that some people have when it comes to troubleshooting a computer. When I troubleshoot something I poke and prod some places that I think makes sense and if it's an unfamiliar computer to me I'll do some basic getting a lay of the land kind of information gathering about how the computer feels and then usually my brain makes a connection with a previous case or scenario and usually it's something completely out of the blue that ends up being the exact right thing to do in order to fix an issue.
You could say that you can't teach experience I guess. You can't teach sitting at a computer for hours a day for years in a life breaking and fixing your own computer over and over through mistakes or misuse or even on purpose trying experimental things.
Like one example that comes off the top of my head was fixing one of my friends computers who was having trouble starting up OBS to stream with. Every single time they would start up obs and they would try and add a video capture device OBS would freeze. I got them to diagnose the chipset drivers and the USB ports and even unplugging everything that was unnecessary to no avail. And then I remembered something from when I was testing a whole bunch of different vtuber softwares, if you don't know what that is it's software to control a 3D or 2D Avatar basically and a lot of them install virtual webcam drivers in Windows. Even if you uninstall them sometimes they don't totally clean up their virtual webcam drivers. So I quickly did a little Google search to find out the registry location that contains all of the current and previously known Windows imaging devices. I found that and then I talked my friend through finding that in regedit and I asked them to click on all of the different entries in there and sure enough those were different webcams that didn't need to exist anymore so I had them delete all of those keys and then reboot and try doing it again in obs and it worked! In fact a lot of things worked better that didn't make any sense at all and I believe that's because a lot of programs in the background or related to obs... Something was trying to enumerate all of the windows imaging devices over and over and over and over and failing.
I think if I didn't have that previous experience stored away in my brain that I never would have found out the root cause of the problem and fixed it. Another troubleshooter might have just been like, just reinstall Windows it's because Windows is broken windows broke itself... But that would be completely incorrect. It was poorly built programs not knowing how to uninstall themselves correctly and windows was just fine.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#8> So since 2000 schools have been teaching students Microsoft skills (Adobe skills were introduced a little later).
My most recent required computer class was indeed learning how to use Microsoft Office in high school in 2016. That's it, all the computer education that students required. Even in middle school we were learning how to use office software. Insane that schools STILL just teach office software and not computing thanks to Microsoft's efforts.
I was hoping that schools would learn from these mistakes in the past, but we are only heading farther into the reality of locked down phones and console replacing desktops skills. General desktop skills seems much more important than learning how to use a word software.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#9TLDR section puts a bad taste of the authors ego in my mouth. Would be better to simply have not included it to begin with.
Re: Kids can't use computers and this is why it should worry you (2013)
#10TLDR section puts a bad taste of the authors ego in my mouth. Would be better to simply have not included it to begin with.
Hit a nerve? I thought it was funny.