Author Topic: The concept of file folders and directories is gibberish to many modern students  (Read 1438 times)

rcjordan

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"Gradually, Garland came to the same realization that many of her fellow educators have reached in the past four years: the concept of file folders and directories, essential to previous generations’ understanding of computers, is gibberish to many modern students."

Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever
https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z

ergophobe

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I saw this and had a couple of thoughts.

1. My observations on student behavior.

In my paleography course, I have taught regular expressions since 1998. The best dictionary in the field is an online dictionary that allows regex searches, which is incredibly useful for paleography. Furthermore, even before that, I used them because once you have a corpus of text that you've amassed, you can use regex searches on your own texts. This is really important for early-modern and earlier texts because there are no fixed spellings. For example, the modern French word "sait" (3rd person singular) could be written sait, sayt, scait, scayt, set, scet, scay, and probably other ways. So regex has been an essential historical research tool for me for 30 years.

From 1998 to 2012, I would show this to students and they would lose focus, not see the point, never use it. In 2014, they thought it was cool, then immediately forgot it. In 2016, they saw it, immediately grasped the utility, used it every day, and mentioned it as one of the best things they learned when it came time for the evaluations. In 2016 and 2021, they were not quite as enthusiastic, but they did start using it. So every group before 2015 ignored this lesson. Every group after 2015 started using regex in their work. In other words, I taught this skill for 18 years before it finally found an audience.

My conclusion was that I had finally encountered the group of students for whom search is a native function. They *expect* dictionaries to be searchable and when they find out that there is a super Power Search available, it's just a better tool for what they already do. They immediately see why they should use this.

2. I question the conclusion of this article a bit for two reasons.

a. I have constantly encountered Mac users who have no clue how to find a file on their machines going back well over a decade. They expect to use the Finder and to find files by opening the app they use for that file. Not power users of course, but countless times I've asked a Mac user to find a file on their machine and they have no idea how to do that. These have been users of all ages. Perhaps market share for Macs is increasing.

b. less frequently, I have come across Windows users who are the same as the Mac users. To find a text doc, they open Word. To find a spreadsheet, they open Excel. They have absolutely no idea where their files are. These have been users a generation older than me - my graduate advisor, my dad. I eventually taught a friend who is now in his 70s about the underlying file organization.

So my observation is that people who simply don't use computers that much have never understood this. People who use an OS that doesn't require this knowledge have never understood this and the professors only understand this because they, like us, mostly used crappy computers that require people to know where their files are. As much as Mr Spock knows about the ship computer, he does not know where the files are stored, does he?
« Last Edit: September 24, 2021, 04:29:52 PM by ergophobe »

Drastic

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Interesting. I often ponder the differences that we'll have from people who grew up with smartphones and tablets instead of kb/mouse.  It's such a different environment. I've always thought this would be a dumbing-down of users in general.

I absolutely loathed the first gen or two touch interfaces on mobile/tablet. Hated the limitations and inability to do super-user things in general. Now, I find myself reaching for my phone for at least one app instead of using the desktop I'm sitting at, as the app interface is easier to use the the site. (NOAA weather)

ergophobe

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dumbing-down of users in general.

I wouldn't say that except in the sense that reliable cars have resulted in a dumbing down of drivers. It used to be that for any long drive you needed to be a mechanic or have one with you. Now, I can drive a car without being a mechanic. That's a good thing. I have no interest in being a mechanic.

So I see the "dumbing down of users" as a good thing in the history of computing. It frees people up to, say, write their novel rather than doing maintenance on their machine.

littleman

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My teenager's highschool made news two years ago for being the first in the country to ban cell phones during school hours.  The kids have to put their phones in these sealed pouches until the end of the day.  Anyway, they all grew up with cell phones and have come to rely on them in ways that wouldn't seem obvious at first.  It turns out most of them don't know how to use an analog clock.  Everyone is always asking her what time it is because she is one of the few that can actually tell time.  The same thing happens to my forth-grader, but that is more expected.

buckworks

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>> don't know how to use an analog clock.

So they wouldn't understand "clockwise" or "counterclockwise".

ergophobe

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>> analog clock

I believe this has been posted here before: video of teenagers baffled by rotary phone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNEzndgiFI

But they are shocked that I don't know how to use Instagram or Tik Tok.