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Digital native students lack basic computer skills, education expert says

From ABC Australia · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • An education expert warns that students who grew up with technology lack basic computer skills like typing and saving files.
  • While schools integrate digital learning, explicit instruction in fundamental computer skills is missing, unlike traditional literacy.
  • This deficiency impacts students' ability to focus on ideas when composing text, especially as standardized tests are increasingly computer-based.

Digital native students, despite growing up surrounded by technology, are surprisingly lacking in fundamental computer skills, according to education expert Emily Lockwood. Unlike previous generations who learned typing, presentation software, and file management in dedicated computer labs, today's students are not receiving this explicit instruction.

Kids don't have that these days.

— Emily LockwoodMs. Lockwood describes the absence of basic computer skills classes in primary schools.

Lockwood observes that while digital learning is woven into various subjects, the foundational skills are often overlooked. Her own children, despite constant device use, struggled with basic typing, describing it as "very slow" and "like hunting and pecking." She likens this to being a passenger in a car rather than knowing how to drive, highlighting a misconception that familiarity with devices equates to proficiency.

Teachers are expected to weave digital learning throughout all of the subjects, so it might come up in History, Science, English, and that's a crazy ask to me.

— Emily LockwoodMs. Lockwood expresses concern about the integration of digital learning without explicit foundational instruction.

Edith Cowan University senior lecturer Anabela Malpique supports this view, suggesting that children have more experience with handwriting than with typing. She emphasizes the concept of "keyboarding automaticity," where typing becomes so natural that it doesn't impede the thought process. Without this automaticity, students struggle to focus on their ideas because they are preoccupied with the mechanics of typing.

It's pretty horrific to look at, it is like very slow, they're unfamiliar with where things go.

— Emily LockwoodMs. Lockwood describes her children's difficulty with basic typing on a computer.

Malpique argues for the necessity of explicit teaching of basic computer skills, akin to teaching reading, writing, and mathematics. This is particularly critical as students in Year 5 and above are expected to complete standardized tests, such as NAPLAN, on computers. The article notes a decline in writing proficiency scores from Year 3 to Year 9, with NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car suggesting that computerised testing might be a contributing factor.

If you don't develop your keyboarding automaticity to a point where you actually are not hunting and pecking the letters on a keyboard, you will end up in a position of not really focusing on your ideas.

— Anabela MalpiqueMs. Malpique explains the importance of automaticity in typing for effective writing.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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