Why children may need computer lessons too
By Marcus Goh and Adrian Kuek
Grade Expectations is a weekly feature on education in Singapore. Expect fun activities, useful tips and insightful news on learning. It’s not just about your child’s grades — it’s about raising a great child!
Computer lessons for kids may seem like a funny concept. After all, most children are pretty conversant with mobile devices. Give any child a mobile phone or a tablet and watch how they just appear to know it in and out. In fact, they probably know more device shortcuts than you do and can message a lot faster than they can write a composition.
That doesn’t mean that they are automatically computer masters. Just like us, children may need to learn how to use desktop computers and even go for computer classes.
The mobile native fallacy
Just because students are conversant with mobile devices, it doesn’t mean that they are equally conversant with computers. While that might be the case for some students, especially those who are interested in computing and programming, mobile literacy doesn’t necessarily equate to computer literacy.
That’s because mobile interfaces vastly differ from computer ones, as the corresponding operating systems were developed for different requirements and needs. It’s true that both systems are slowly converging, as can be seen by the number of tablet/computer hybrids in the market today. But they are still fundamentally different.
Ask any teacher about the computer literacy of students, and they’ll tell you that it’s not as high as one might expect.
Learning patterns in electronic devices
For adults (generally, those born before 1996), we learnt how to use computers first, then mobile devices. That was the natural progression as personal computers were available before smart phones and tablets.
Children born after 1995, however, had access to a mobile device before they did a computer. This is a function of mobility and portability, since it’s much easier for a pre-schooler to learn to use a tiny tablet rather than to tackle a computer with a monitor that might very well be as large as they are.
This means that children learn how to use mobile technologies first, and since many of them literally grow up with one, it’s inevitable that they would be incredibly proficient at using them. Computers are largely neglected (at least until they’re older, like in primary school) and have the potential to remain foreign equipment to them.
Computer skills that your child may need to learn
Going for computer lessons may be as important today as it was 20 years ago. The same skills that we had to learn in the past are just as useful now.
1. Typing
Our QWERTY keyboard is one of the least intuitive aspects of a computer. It does take dedicated practice to learn how to type with all your fingers without looking at the keyboard, and the sooner your child can learn this, the more it will benefit him or her.
After all, you don’t want to see your child using the dreaded two-finger (T-Rex) typing style, right?
2. Computer literacy
The complex folder structure on a computer can seem labyrinthine compared to the flatter file structure of a mobile phone. Saving files on a computer is also different from how it’s done on a mobile phone. Remember how weird it was for you the first time you saved a file on your mobile phone? The user interface of a computer, needless to say, is markedly different. For kids used to tapping and holding to bring up options on a mobile phone, right-click or Control-click may seem like a foreign language.
So learning how a computer works may come in handy when your child has to type reports or create presentations, which are usually done on a computer instead of a mobile device.
3. Microsoft Office – Word, PowerPoint, Excel
Microsoft Word is the most popular word-processing software in the world, and its many features (like auto-generating content pages) can save time by automating otherwise laborious processes. Microsoft PowerPoint is not only a ubiquitous presentation software, it also doubles up as an image editor in a pinch.
Learning how to use these two programmes effectively could help your child in the later stages of his or her education journey.
4. Coding classes
With computing being offered as an O-Level subject from this year onwards, there’s a good reason to start your child on understanding how computers and coding work. The IT sector is one of the few industries that are expected to stay strong despite the economic slowdown in Singapore. It may continue to be an important industry that might be flourishing when your child enters the workforce.
Marcus Goh runs Write-Handed, a creative writing studio. At the same time, he teaches Secondary English at The Write Connection. He has been a specialist tutor for English and Literature (Secondary) since 2005.
Adrian Kuek runs Joyous Learning, an enrichment centre that specialises in English, Mathematics, Science and Creative Writing for Primary. He previously served as the academic director of one of Singapore’s largest enrichment centre chains for over seven years.
