Grumpy Old Men
I filmed a series of videos years ago which I never published. The concept was I would talk to the camera and explain how the internet and computers work. The series was called “Grumpy Old Men”. I don’t remember exactly how many I made, possibly 6 or 8 and I would be traveling and set up my camera in a town somewhere and begin my rant. I would talk about YouTube, Hashtags those squiggly red lines under words when you are writing and more. You get the idea. I have probably spent more than enough time at a computer and am often amazed when I watch others trying to add a photo to an email or format a headline in a text file how little is understood.
If you think I should find those recordings and share them then leave me a comment.
What I wanted to talk about today is my thoughts on teaching young people how to use computers and the internet. About 20 or so years ago it was commonly noted that “the young people today have a natural advantage with computers”. At that time I was not considered to be of the “young generation” anymore, however, this did not bother me. In 2005 I was given a book by my father titled “The Search” as I was always talking about using search to find and learn things.
Young people are part of a highly dynamic society. Inevitably, they relate to given technical and social arrangements. (German Youth Institute, 2003)
Knowing good search skills
Most important early tip with computers
Today, I do not think the “youth” have that same advantage. They may have an exceptional ability to use a mobile device to create an image, a post and share it across social platforms. They might know how to have food or new shoes delivered before you might finish thinking about “what shoes to buy” but not with the internet or computers in general.
In my Grumpy videos I wanted to revisit some of the concepts of computers and the internet. Often it was just to “get stuff done”. I once saw a colleagues presentation he was working on and was making updates to some images. He had “a build” or “animation” within his presentation which by clicking through more elements would appear on the screen. However, he was not using the animation function within Powerpoint but had made each step of his “build” a copy of the original slide then added the next element to the following slide. To be clear, there is nothing wrong doing it this way. He felt later he needed to change one of the elements in the slide which needed now to be changed in over 20 slides! I just kept thinking of all the time that would take him and hopefully not another change might still be looming.
I feel schools need to spend more time teaching pupils (and maybe teachers too) how to use these tools. Now, I am speaking from limited exposure to schools systems and am making this more general statement but I have observed over the last decade very many young people entering the workforce not knowing the basics of office PC software.
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How to create a distribution list
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How to BCC someone, and why
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How to use a Word template document
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How to create a Word template
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How to format cells in Excel
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How to make an animation in Powerpoint
I could go on but you probably get the idea. There is a lot of talk about getting young people to “code” or learn programming and others speak loudly about teaching the youth “fiscal responsibility”. I feel that the recent generation has grown mostly in an apps world. An at times wonderful place where at a click of a button a holiday is booked and the Uber scheduled. It is indeed amazing how far we have come. We are not, fortunately, at an all-app world. There are still many manual, digital skills needed.
If there is one thing I have taught my own kids and was reconfirmed when I mentioned that I was writing this article today, was the power of Search. Learning good search techniques can not only save you lots of time but allow to you find more relevant results as seen in a number of the links I have included below. Taking time and practice to use search engines pays back every penny.
Have a great weekend!
/Andrew
Further reading:
The Search - How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. John Battelle, co-founder of Wired
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10146.The_Search
One-hour talk Battelle gave at Microsoft in 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgEsfSfAG_A
Growing Up in Technological Worlds: How Modern Technologies Shape the Everyday Lives of Young People - German Youth Institute: 2003
https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bibs/0_2170sagepub.pdf
The Atlantic 2017: HAVE SMARTPHONES DESTROYED A GENERATION? More comfortable online than out partying, post-Millennials are safer, physically, than adolescents have ever been. But they’re on the brink of a mental-health crisis.