An odd evening: I realised just how clueless kids are...

An odd evening: I realised just how clueless kids are when it comes to how to actually use a computer. Microsoft is infantilising our kids by turning everything into a browser app (#DigitalNatives my foot). Meanwhile I, their mother used a 45 year old scripting language to more or less painlessly sort + backup ~55,000 family photos by year + month... #BASH

Like 9 October at 21:44 | Open on fediscience.org

11 comments

Ruth Mottram

Youngest needs a laptop for school (tbf school have offered to lend one), after being dead against having one like my "nerd machine" (with "fake powerpoint"*), a few hours of playing around on it later has changed to "I want one just like yours"... So I guess that's a win.

But man, we have work to do with the young'uns...

#SoEasyYour KidsCanDoIt
#MyOtherComputerisAnHPC

*Libre Office Impress

9 October at 21:47 | Open on fediscience.org

Roche Limit

@Ruth_Mottram
Everyone comes to hate Windows and Office, but only a select few realise they can switch to a superior alternative.
It is a credit to your parenting!

9 October at 21:54 | Open on tilde.zone

Alex Holst

@Ruth_Mottram Huh, my kid was required to show up with Windows or macOS because of “WordMat” used to do math assignments in Word.

Almost everything else they use is open source.

9 October at 21:57 | Open on helvede.net

Ruth Mottram

@holsta They seem to be in hock to microsoft in FKB - assignments etc require log in via skoleintra to easyiq which is basically outlook and from where they can use other microsoft apps (in the browser), mostly powerpoint afaics for presentations (I'm also unsure of the value of some of the education they're getting in this school too tbh)

9 October at 22:00 | Open on fediscience.org

Jay Stephens

@holsta @Ruth_Mottram Yeah same - bunch of lockin around the Microsoft office suite means there's no choice. Grr. It's at the education department level too, so serious structural change is required to fix this. Same thinking that has all the updates and timetable info pushed out on Facebook while the school website moulders untouched.

9 October at 22:04 | Open on mastodon.social

Morten Kjeldgaard

@Ruth_Mottram You can buy a used Lenovo laptop very cheaply, and they are simply amazing for Linux. I was lucky enough to get a T520 from 2012 and it’s perfect. Everything works and it’s sturdy and the keyboard is the best.

9 October at 22:02 | Open on mastodon.online

Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝

@Ruth_Mottram

I taught one of my kids vim when he was around 14. Ancient esoteric rites

9 October at 21:53 | Open on mastodon.social

Morgan

@Ruth_Mottram I'm like right on the edge and it's horrifying, many of my classmates (college students) don't even know how to use email

9 October at 21:59 | Open on disabled.social

Ruth Mottram

@raphaelmorgan Hah that was another one:

Me to eldest: Have you got email on that laptop
Eldest: No I don't think so. I have gmail though...

😳 🤦

Where to start?
I mean I never learned this stuff at school either, but I didn't know anyone who used a computer at home.
How did we get into this mess?

9 October at 22:01 | Open on fediscience.org

C. Anthony Lewis

@Ruth_Mottram I concur... before I stepped away from permanent employment I ran a Stage 1 IT module. Over the 25+ years I can't say I noticed any significant change in student abilities. Even in the 'standard' packages that everyone 'knows' how to use...

9 October at 22:04 | Open on mastodon.social

Christo. London, England

@Ruth_Mottram
There was a time when schools IT was Nicrosoft and Spreadsheets. I remember parents in IT coming in talking about coding.

9 October at 22:04 | Open on mastodon.me.uk