We have known for some time that the assumption by Prensky that kids born after a certain year are born computer literate is bunkum. Unfortunately, this hasn’t yet translated to an effective formula for teaching computer skills as this article in today’s ‘paper’ notes.

The article reports on ACARA’s assessment that ICT literacy has fallen significantly between 2011 and 2014 based on students’ performance of certain tasks (pictured).

Whether these are the skills that we should be testing seems sketchy. So to, we might ask which programs the students are asked to use carry out these tasks and whether they have become less relevant.

Nevertheless, as teachers it is crucial to have fluency in what we are expected to teach. As a result, it is probably worth: working your way through this list, making sure you can do everything on it and possibly creating a little repository of how-to links to help students learn and develop these skills.