Making the Implicit Explicit
Dec
14
Written by:
12/14/2009 5:19 AM
by Kim Cofino
One of the issues that comes up again and again in our CoETaIL program is the “essential technology skills” that all of our students (and teachers) need to know. Now, I have to admit, I usually have a hard time with this idea, because it often comes with a list of skills like: bullets in Word, formulas in Excel or animations in PowerPoint. Basically all the things I’ve been trying to de-emphasize in favor of bigger, more wider-reaching concepts like collaboration across distances, communicating ideas to multiple audiences, or creating something new using technology tools.
Sure, you need to know how to add bullets – but you should learn how when you’re writing a list (”just in time“), not for the sake of knowing “just in case” you might need it. So, it was very interesting to me when our conversation in our last course took a turn to something I can really relate to – rather than the list of standard MS Office “skills” that were all the rage in the 1990s (with the previous edition of the NET*S), but those almost unidentifiable skills that frequent computer users just seem to take for granted. Things like:
- knowing to hold your mouse over an icon or a link to see what it does.
- understanding that the menus for any program are at the top of the screen, that they are usually very similar, and generally what you find within them (for example: “view” usually means how you see things on the screen and that menu is found in almost every program).
- recognizing when something is lit up (or underlined) on a website, you can click on it.
- knowing that the cursor changes when held over different parts of the screen and what that means (the little arrow turning into a hand over a weblink for example, or being able to stretch out a picture when it turns into the double-sided arrow).
- using tab to move from cell to cell or box to box on forms or websites.
- being able to recognize drop-down menus – and that they hold additional features.
- understanding that right clicking on things brings up more options.
These are things that are common from program to program as well as on multiple operating systems. They’re not specific tasks that you only use once in a while, they’re things we do every day, and those that are comfortable with these skills often find learning new technology tools a lot easier than those that are not. It’s like these skills are part of a special language that we can speak in order to understand how to interact in any given technology-based environment.
What’s especially interesting about these little, seemingly meaningless, skills is that they truly are transferrable and haven’t changed much over time – they’re certainly not dependent on a specific version of software. Unfortunately, despite their consistency, they often cause a lot of confusion for people who aren’t really comfortable with technology.
But here’s the thing: how many of these kinds of skills are there? Is there some kind of list? Because it’s almost impossible to think of all of them once they become second nature. Yet it’s easy to see how much people struggle when they haven’t learned them or don’t “see” them when they’re using technology. Even when we support people who are new to technology, we almost expect that they can see these small clues the computer gives us, in fact, they become implicit in our understanding of how to use a computer.
We simply expect people to know why the mouse and cursor change shape and what the shapes mean, or that you can figure out how to do pretty much anything by checking the help menu in any program, or that you need to highlight something before being able to change that item because that’s how you “tell” the computer what you want to change. These have become intuitive skills for those of us that use technology regularly, but unfortunately not knowing them has become an obstacle for others to overcome.
How can we make these simple and far reaching technology skills explicit?
A few weeks ago, I was in a grade 2 classroom demonstrating VoiceThread for a quick and easy science project. Based on our conversation in CoETaIL from the day before, I wanted to see what the second graders knew about these basic skills, so I spent a few minutes of my lesson specifically highlighting the many ways which the computer gives us “clues” about what to do.
First, when we logged into VoiceThread, we looked all around the screen to see if we could figure out how to make our own VoiceThread based on the options. It took them a few tries to understand that the “Create” button was telling us that this is the place where we can create our own Thread.
Once we got to the create screen, I asked them if they could tell me where to start. Again, it took a few tries, but once they realized the Upload button was the only one they could press, I asked them how they could know that in the future. They figured out that it was the only button in color, and it was the only button that, when you moused over it, turned the mouse into the shape of a hand.
We basically went on like this throughout the process of creating a VoiceThread. To be honest, I thought all of those “signs” would be blatantly obvious to these 7-year old students, who have grown up with computer games, but they weren’t. As soon as we pointed them out, it was clear to see that they made sense and that with continued discussion, they would become second-nature. But again, who’s going to be having this discussion with them if their teachers aren’t comfortable with these implicit skills either?
Not that I’m looking to make another old-school list of standards, but what else would you put on the list of implicit tech skills like these? Do you teach them in your school?
11 comment(s) so far...
Making the Implicit Explicit
I have learned not to assume anything when dealing with students of any age, from the minikids to college kids to adults and teachers.
I work with teachers who assume their students are tech savvy. And they may be in the areas that interest them but not necessarily the areas that will help them in their school work or throughout life. And sometimes their teachers believe that they know how and what to do and they don't.
I often tell groups of students that I assume nothing so that I will cover some things that they already know and some that they may not know.
Thank you for a timely piece.
By bruna ori on
12/17/2009 7:13 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Share with others ...........
By Rod on
12/17/2009 12:59 PM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Right clicking (control clicking on a Mac) to get "contextual menu items" for whatever is highlighted. Keyboard shortcuts.
By Brian Turner on
12/20/2009 3:00 PM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Readers might want to check out the TechYES program aimed at assessing technology literacy in the middle school. http://genyes.com/programs/techyes/.
By Dennis Harper on
12/17/2009 10:39 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
A great way to look at essential skills! My experience tells me that if I did the same experiment with my 7th or 8th graders as you did with the 2nd graders that a similar result would occur. I think it is folly to assume that because kids can text and maintain their Facebook pages that they can also navigate new programs, find information in a website, or navigate efficiently.
I would add to the essential skills: Understanding file structures -- where to save a file, how to save it, what name to give it, and then where to find it again.
By Janet R. on
12/17/2009 6:28 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
how to use keyboard shortcuts such as cut, paste, copy, duplicate a document on the desktop, etc. (and how to perform these tasks in the first place let alone using the shortcuts!!)
By Phyllis on
12/17/2009 6:37 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Kim,
Thank you for this terrific flowchart! Could we order t-shirts, please? This is an issue educational technologists grapple with regularly.
That's a great example from the second grade classroom. When I started teaching primary grades a wonderful mentor told me, "Assume they know nothing, not even how to hold the scissors or to turn the paper as they cut." On the technology continuum we have learners with sets of splinter skills. Some may think they are really savvy because they are proficient with one application, but when it is time to learn something knew they experience disequilibrium because they are missing subsets of other skills that are fundamental steps in a process. We've all been there! Thank you for calling these out. Our students are often more willing to try just to see where it will take them than are our adult learners who seem to have a need to know how to do everything right the first time.
How hard would it be to make a comprehensive list of these process skills? In over a decade, how many individual skills have we learned and filed away just to be able to process a simple task? For example, to import pictures into a Photo Story project, how many steps are there? First an individual must know how to take the pictures (digital camera use), get the pictures from the camera to the computer, find the folder with the pictures, save the pictures, find the pictures again (where did those get saved???), select the picture, use CTRL to select multiple pictures, edit the pictures – before or after importing? There are probably other substeps not listed that are just second nature and I wouldn’t even think about doing them. Recently some teachers would not attend an online session to learn about Photo Story because of the implied need to know just those skills – they were afraid they would not be able to manipulate folders to find pictures, therefore, they missed the opportunity to learn a new application.
You also make an important point likening technology literacy to a "special language." Does it seem to anyone else that adults who are proficient in some other language, be it music, programming, mathematics, an area of engineering, a world language, or some other creative, artistic process, seem to have an easier time assimilating technology literacy skills and translating them to processes on the continuum? If this is a second language, is it being taught early enough so that it will become second nature to young learners?
Thanks for an insightful article.
By Sue Summerford on
12/17/2009 7:19 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Hi Kim,
I like lists! and yes, I made a list (last century) of "basic" tech skills, including things like bulleting in Word, and I still think that list has value :-) as teachers or students think about what types of minimal competencies they should have in a given environment.
Thanks for kicking off this list of implicit skills! I created a wiki page for it at: http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Implicit_Computing_Skills
By demetri on
12/20/2009 1:04 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
That when you are told to enter any key don't look for a key labeled "Any Key" just enter a key on the computer keyboard.
By Chris Abbey on
12/17/2009 6:34 AM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Every one understands that today's life seems to be high priced, but we need money for various issues and not every one earns big sums money. Therefore to receive good loans or bank loan should be a proper way out.
By Sharpe27Kate on
4/1/2010 2:11 PM
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Making the Implicit Explicit
Students should Know that the HELP menu is the first place to start in any software, and that the web is the next place to search for help - this helps them to be autonomous learners
I also think they need to understand advanced search functions (Boolean, etc) and need to have a foundational understanding of information synthesis
By Kathy Wylie on
1/6/2010 2:49 PM
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