What constitutes "basic computer knowledge" in 2014?

[Mercutio]

Here's a fun, simple question for everybody:

What do you think constitutes basic computer knowledge in 2014?

A few thoughts:
Windows presently has at least three radically different interfaces. XP, Vista/7 and 8 all behave differently, meaning that instruction using rote memorization is unhelpful.
Relatively few normal users create folders or use any applications that are not either available from the desktop or the taskbar, even for people who use a computer all day
"How do I get this on my phone?" seems to be the question of the year.

 

[P5-133XL]

How basic is basic? usage of touch-screen, mouse, keyboard or are we talking office, libraries, metro, and apps, Email, Web, communicating between desktop, notebook, and phone or how to manipulate the different Windows versions, file-sharing, Installing applications,security, malware, Primitive Linux install, and usage? Depending upon the starting point of the person and their needs all of the above could be considered "basic"

 

[ddrueding]

I've started refusing to give step-by-step directions. As mentioned above, interfaces change too much for that to be useful. Fortunately, people are beginning to understand that computer knowledge is important, and possibly that their future employ-ability depends on it.

Instead I talk about the steps required to accomplish a task. I expect my users to be able to answer the question when I ask "Where is your document?", and if their answer includes the phrase "Recent Documents" they get a lecture. Firefox is another moving target, with the entire menu tree changing for some users into the orange rectangle in the upper left and staying a menu system for others. And the recent move by Google Apps to stick the calendar in with other stuff under the "9 square dots" on the right took some getting used to. The "winners" of my users asked where it went, the "losers" accused me of deleting their calendar.

I've also started telling my users that they are or aren't up for certain functionality. Multiple monitors, the full version of Acrobat, access to the web-interface of the copy machine for job manipulation, permissions to make systemic changes in certain networked programs. These are all things that if you want it, and I feel you have the skills to do without wasting my time, I can give to you as a reward. If I could find additional ways to game-ify the learning process I'd be all over it. They are competitive; often asking how their computer knowledge ranks compared to their co-workers.

 

[Mercutio]

It's a purposefully open-ended question but it's something I'm thinking about as I talk to co-workers about what we're teaching, especially to people who are new to technology.

For example, I think it's a big deal to be able to switch wireless networks or to pick a non-default printer, and to change display properties without just dropping all screen resolutions to 800x600.
I also think understanding files and folders is a big deal but as far as I can tell no matter how hard we try to teach that only maybe 1 in 20 people actually gets it, so a simpler approach might be "Copy a file on to or from a flash drive."

 

[ddrueding]

Those are all good ones. Files and folders are hard, but I feel that it is massively important. When I got users to navigate through the network drive to their file rather than opening Word (it it was a Word Doc) and using the "recent" list, it saved me a dozen calls a week. And once they are doing that they can eventually get the concept that they can save different files in different folders. Maybe even create their own folders to organize things.

 

[Mercutio]

We've tried explaining files and folders for years, but it's foreign to too many people. Even people who work in offices and spend their whole day in Word and Excel don't really understand that they can be more organized than just saving things in the place Word and Excel want to save things by default. I'm told we spend 40% of any basic Windows class on concepts related to folders and fundamental navigation. The people who get it tend to grasp the concepts immediately and the people who don't by and large never will.

 

[ddrueding]

Wow, I've never put that kind of time into teaching folders. The most successful method I've tried so far is when they've recently purchased a digital camera. Pictures are so obviously "things" that need organization. Typically I start by creating the folder structure and teaching them just how to move pictures from the camera into one of the folders. After a while they realize they need more folders. At this point they want to do tagging or symlinking but I shoot that idea down completely.

 

[Mercutio]

Basically, a lot of people think of files and folders as things that magically happen outside their control. Cameras make files, users don't. They assume their web browser or music player or whatever puts things where they're supposed to go so that they don't have to know anything about it.

 

[Chewy509]

I think my thoughts are along the same lines:
1. Files and folders, including navigation.
2. Printer management. (You'll be amazed how many people don't know about printer settings or even that a print spool exists).
3. Windows/Mac/Linux, etc ll have different applications for doing the same thing, think about the task at hand and not the application. (The number of people I had send screenshots embedded in word documents as BMPs, arrgghh).
4. Expect change (and lots of it).
5. And for the love of God, Programmers, System Admins, Networks Admins, etc all have different skill sets, we don't know it all. (The number of times I get asked about some obscure feature in some random application, and get funny looks that 1, I don't even know what the application is, 2, I can only give vague descriptions of what to do it, is amazing).

 

[Handruin]

Basically, a lot of people think of files and folders as things that magically happen outside their control. Cameras make files, users don't. They assume their web browser or music player or whatever puts things where they're supposed to go so that they don't have to know anything about it.

Could you some how incorporate a more concrete representation of files and folders using a legitimate file cabinet and manila folders with paper files and printed pictures in them? Plop a bunch of papers in front of someone and ask them to organize it into the file cabinet. If they can't grasp how to do it in the real world, forget about it on a computer. If they can, there is a clear synergy that can be shown between both of them. The hard drive being the file cabinet, the folder being a folder, and of course a file being similar to a piece of paper or even a printed picture.

 

[mubs]

Windows presently has at least three radically different interfaces. XP, Vista/7 and 8 all behave differently, meaning that instruction using rote memorization is unhelpful.

What is a huge fail is that technology is supposed to make things easier, but things are getting harder for the layperson.

 

[Handruin]

Windows is still trying to find itself so I agree with you there. The mobile and tablet market has grown so well party because it has gotten less complicated. Users don't worry about storing files any more. They don't worry about installing software. It's all managed by a vending machine now.

 

[Tannin]

Files and folders is what it's all about. That's what I start people on, and (with some exceptions for fair-dinkum dummies who have difficulty figuring out any technology more complicated than a corkscrew) that's what I require people to lean. With a little one-on-one work, 80%+ of punters are OK with it inside 10 minutes. I'm not saying some of them don't forget it and need a refresher next time I see them, but most of those who get it manage to retain it.

I always start by telling them about Rule One - "Me human. You computer. Me boss!". (Do it with your best Tarzan voice, with a generous dose of gesture.) They love Rule One! And the more intimidated and confused they feel about computers, the better they respond to the notion of Rule One. I explain that Rule One works on computers, and also works with horses and dogs - oh, and don't try it on wives or husbands, it ends in tears. Once you've got Rule One sorted out, everthing else pretty much falls into place, I tell them.

So how do we do this Rule One thing? We have to know where stuff is! If you know where your stuff is, YOU are in charge - that's Rule One. If you don't know where your stuff is, the computer is in charge. Rule One!

Then we start with My Computer and navigate our way down to My Documents via C: and Users (or D&S) and so on - "this is the real place where your documents actually live - that thing on the desktop is just a shortcut, this is the real place". So I'm actually starting the on the hard part, starting them with the asinine weirdness of the default Microsoft directory structure, but I don't tell them that, and 'coz they don't know it's hard (and also 'coz they really, really want Rule One to be true), they cope with it just fine.

Then I make them do it, hands on - for example, I make them open a letter they wrote last week, starting from the desktop and navigating down the tree. Depending on circumstances, we might go on and do pictures in the pictures folder - again, always working down from My Computer and the C: drive, 'coz repetition is the second-most important key to retained knowledge. The first and most important key, of course, is salience. If I just taught people how to navigate a folder structure, no-one would pay much attention, and only a handful would understand it, let alone remember it. It's just some complicated geeky stuff, right? But by making it salient - this is the whole point of Rule One! - they pay attention, and they learn.

Rule One: give it a try, I heartily recommend it to you all.

 

[P5-133XL]

OK, let's try it:

Me human. You ape. Me boss!

Are you cowering yet?

 

[Tannin]

I think it works the other way around, Mark. Shall I ask her?

 

[Tea]

You are correct, Tannin. Sometimes you can be quite intelligent for a human.

 

[Mercutio]

I do believe we have an extended set of exercises for demonstrating the concepts, but some people are too dense to work with the abstraction and/or decide it's just too damned much work.

As an aside, I do quite like the balance struck by Android, in that users can choose to use folders and organize data or just let the OS do it, because applications will just scan the filesystem for applicable content. That's kind of a best of both worlds approach in my opinion.

But, alright, files and folders. I know we TRY to teach about them and I also know we fail at it a lot. I suspect the majority of you have co-workers who don't understand or are too lazy to use them as well.

What else goes on the list?

 

[sedrosken]

In my humble opinion, basic computer knowledge consists of knowing:
-how to turn it on
-how to run a web browser and use a search engine (no Googling Google to find Google)
-how to use a word processor and save and open documents, as well as printing when applicable
-how to do basic drive navigation and file cut/copy/paste/delete
-how to do basic troubleshooting (rebooting, mainly)