What do you need to know?

When talking about technology, teachers have often said to me, "I don't know what I don't know" and that can often be a source of frustration. The two most important things you need to know are...

You will also need to know about these four key things...

Once you know this, you don't really need to know much more to get started! You might be interested to read more about why the jargon of computers causes so much trouble...

What about that jargon?

Few people understood what to do with the black and white screens and blinking text on a 1970s/80s computer. This wasn't a problem for the programmers and computer experts who worked with these room-sized machines... but when computers got smaller and Personal Computer manufacturers wanted to sell everyone a home computer, they had a bit of work to do!

Graphical User Interfaces

They set about making it look more appealing, and designed Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). These colourful programs sat on top of the nasty black-and-white text underneath and helped make computers easier to use for the rest of us.

User Interface (UI) designers used organisational metaphors and a design technique called Skeuomorphism to create their Graphical User Interface. Computers now used images that mimicked real life, (e.g. trash can) and language of the real world (e.g. desktop). You could find your way around a desktop, clicking in folders and opening files.

Skeuomorphism allowed links to be made between real life and digital objects. Even now, the Kindle electronic book reader still allows you to mimic 'turning the page' even though there is no page!

Windows

It wasn't until the release of Windows in 1990 that home computers or Personal Computers really took off. We now had a graphical user interface, metaphors and a whole new language of computing that is familiar to the computers of 2020.

We pointed with a mouse and threw things we didn't want into a waste basket, although this is now called the recycling bin. We cluttered up our computer desktop just like our real desktop and we tried to organise our computer documents into folders, binders, filing cabinets and archives.

While this language have helped a whole generation to learn how to use computers, it did nothing to help them understand how they worked or prepare them for modern technology. The following sentence makes perfect sense, but is still confusing...

"The document is inside a folder on the desktop of the Windows laptop on top of the folder on the desk by the window."

Make it stop!

The language of computing is really important because it helps to define our understanding. We have to stop thinking about the old language we were given being an accurate description of what they represent. Nobody took the computer mouse to be a literal mouse, but often we assume that documents, files and folders are a literal representation of what is organised inside the computer!

These misunderstandings make it hard for us to understand how cloud computing and things like Google Drive and Microsoft 365 work. But it also makes it harder for us to understand how younger learners use computers through taps, swipes and pinches in seemingly random places with abstract iconography.