Opinions: What computer skills should a 7th grader have?

[Legendsk]

I agree with others that computers are just a tool. It's probably quite reasonable to teach the use of a tool as part of learning fundamentals and how to learn. But the focus should be on concepts not the tools used. There is only so much information that can be taught in 7 or 8 years and the priority should be on permanently useful subjects. For instance using a slide rule as an example might be a good way to help the concept of logarithms, but slide rule skills don't have much value these days.

For your consideration:
http://mwhodges.home.att.net/1895-test.htm
How many of these subjects are still being taught? There are a few that could probably come off the list in today's world, but most still seem pretty valid.

[ZAPPER]

We put men on the moon with a slide ruler and because of speed dial I can't call home without my own cell phone. Go figure!

[energy80s]

well i can tell you what skills are required for my 7th grader -- though she is way past the requirements ...

1. design and publish a web site using frames - they use frontpage in class

2. be able to use a graphics program to pull photos off a digital camera and do things to the pics

3. create a graphic etc using corel or photoshop from scratch

4. be able to mix a song which they record themselves from no less than 8 tracks (on a mac)

5. write a script, plan out and shoot a video on a original subject (in groups of 3 or 4) , edit it , and create a dvd (dad can help -cough cough) ..
and present it to the school .. use the music track they prev created in it somehow also ..

6. be able to use both a mac and pc , create a new user , folders , back up to a server and general mac and pc things ..

7. be able to type at 20-30 wpm


that is the first semester


in the second they get into coding and writing software more and i think be able to build and or name all the parts in a computer... and setting up a network ..

Bloody Hell. Very few people in the BBC can do this! At 11 years old I was taught how to correctly wire a plug! This sort of stuff would be for A Levels and beyond.

[mattso]

There was a news story today or yesterday here, 90% of Australian kids are failing their exams. I'm not surprised. What do they have? Mobile phones. Text messaging. Techno. Hip-hop. "Big Brother". "Idol". Ecstasy. Fashion. The list goes on.

Our Western society has A LOT to answer for, that's for sure.

Give 'em astronomy, which encompasses just about ALL the necessary educations (incl english/grammar), and utilises computers & programming.

Astronomy/cosmology can be the basis of ALL education. Plus it gives them a realistic (non-religious) outlook, not on the world, but on the UNIVERSE.

[gadgetguy]

When I was in seventh grade there were girls. I don't remember much else...

[Sifaga]

i remember slide rules, yellow log books and stealing kids lunches

[painkiller]

I remember one girl in particular.

(And, I expect, so did everyone else.)

[The_Pioneer]

well i can tell you what skills are required for my 7th grader -- though she is way past the requirements ...

1. design and publish a web site using frames - they use frontpage in class

2. be able to use a graphics program to pull photos off a digital camera and do things to the pics

3. create a graphic etc using corel or photoshop from scratch

4. be able to mix a song which they record themselves from no less than 8 tracks (on a mac)

5. write a script, plan out and shoot a video on a original subject (in groups of 3 or 4) , edit it , and create a dvd (dad can help -cough cough) ..
and present it to the school .. use the music track they prev created in it somehow also ..

6. be able to use both a mac and pc , create a new user , folders , back up to a server and general mac and pc things ..

7. be able to type at 20-30 wpm


that is the first semester


in the second they get into coding and writing software more and i think be able to build and or name all the parts in a computer... and setting up a network ..

Bloody Hell. Very few people in the BBC can do this! At 11 years old I was taught how to correctly wire a plug! This sort of stuff would be for A Levels and beyond.

I'm with you energy80s!

It's scary to talk to Americans about what they did at equivalent school ages, past and present. Most would be able to educate our kids (four years their senior) on British History for example! I *think* though, that we can boast that our kids really are kid-like for a lot longer than their american counterparts. I can't tell you if that's necessarily good for either kid or country but I kind of like it.

[BJ_M]

only my kids do not live in the usa - nor even go to an english school

i just found out last night that she is using macromedia flash at school now.. classes at this school are 2.25 hours long for each class --- everything listed was only for computer class --- though the dvd thing crosses over into some other class as a joint project (i think environmental science class)

[The_Pioneer]

Canada...USA...

It's all semantics no? <big grin/much sarcasm thankfully>

I'm generally wary of Canadians, on account of their unerring tendency to be rational. Not to mention the 'oot thing.<again, kidding here>

All I can say, is that I would've noticed the 'Canada' under your name, had I been educated in a Non-English Speaking School situated in Canada.

As it is, I struggle to find my own posts!

[BJ_M]

https://forum.videohelp.com/search.php?search_author=The_Pioneer

[The_Pioneer]

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=224523&highlight=

Check out my post and "flaninacupboard" replying - seems I have a history of ignoring the location field (assuming everyone is from the USA), only to pay the price.

But...I was genuinely kidding about not being able to find my posts!

[somebodeez]

I think parents need to have computer skills! So many don't have a clue but their children sure do and it's next to impossible for the clueless parents to monitor what their children are doing or accessing on the computer.

[BJ_M]

I think parents need to have computer skills! So many don't have a clue but their children sure do and it's next to impossible for the clueless parents to monitor what their children are doing or accessing on the computer.

thats for sure -- but first many have to learn how to use the cable remote control or program a vhs first ..

baby steps !!

[ZAPPER]

Yea, well. Back when I was that age, knapping flint for spear points was all the rage, and sneaking into the caves to see the dirty cave paintings was a favorite pastime. If you couldn't make your own fire, you just didn't get to go into the dark caves. I don't know how my ancesters got by not knowing how to use a rock.

[Supreme2k]

I *think* though, that we can boast that our kids really are kid-like for a lot longer than their american counterparts. I can't tell you if that's necessarily good for either kid or country but I kind of like it.

You can be sure that it's absolutely better. I was at the mall Sunday, and I saw too many eight-year-olds all tarted up like hookers. Better they be kids while they can. There's plenty of time to be ostracized and singled out when they're adults.
Basic "skills" like being able to use a PC in general are all that are needed. Beyond that is a choice of whether to go into the computer field or not. A stockbroker or actor doesn't need to edit pics in photoshop or edit a web page.

Yea, well. Back when I was that age, knapping flint for spear points was all the rage, and sneaking into the caves to see the dirty cave paintings was a favorite pastime. If you couldn't make your own fire, you just didn't get to go into the dark caves. I don't know how my ancesters got by not knowing how to use a rock.

Yeah, gimme the days when primordial soup wasn't something on Emeril's show.

[RoopeT]

Jeez, 7th grade...

I was playing with QBasic/Visual Basic, assembling crappy videos from my webcam and LightWave (I think thats what it was called, real piece of crap), and sharpening my mighty sword in Adobe photoshop. I also think I had a 3 GB hard drive.

.. and I was entering assembly coded games into my VIC20 (that were published on some PC magazines as HEX code (printed, you had to type it!)) ... no hard drives, not even a floppy drive, just a cassette recorder. Right now my oldest kids are 5 & 6 and their favorite hobbies are:

1) Google Earth
2) Painting with Windows Paint .. or similar
3) Emulating Sega Genesis
4) Emulating Nintendo SNES
5) Emulating Emulating Nintendo Game Boy Advance
6) Emulating Nintendo64
7) Playing "back up" games with Nintendo Gamecube & various BIOSes

They can't read yet and they certainly don't know any words in english, so reading capabilities wouldn't help too much with these tasks

Anyway, I think they will be more capable with computers on 7th grade than I'll ever be.

[ZAPPER]

@RoopeT

Just curious, At what age does you culture generally start to read?

[RoopeT]

@RoopeT

Just curious, At what age does you culture generally start to read?

At first grade, age 7 ... both of the kids do know most of the letters and can recognize some words, but I wouldn't call that reading yet.

[ZAPPER]

@RoopeT

Just curious, At what age does you culture generally start to read?

At first grade, age 7 ... both of the kids do know most of the letters and can recognize some words, but I wouldn't call that reading yet.

Thats kind of what I was getting at, as long as they are recognizing words it doesn't matter what language, they are learning. I got my kids some Jump start learning games to trick them into learning. The games will drive anyone that already knows the subject (parents) insane, but the kids think that they are playing and having fun.

[doppletwo]

Did anyone notice that this thread was started by RKelly?


Why is R Kelly asking about 7th graders?


Are R Kelly and Woddy Allen opening up a girls school?


The computer skills a 7th grader should have are:


They should know how to save files to floppy drives or tape drives.

Writing programs to solve the quadratic formula.

Make punch cards for programming a computer.

Change the Vacuum tubes in the computer.

[slacker]

Two rules I go by (not the only 2) are

1. The computer is a tool.
2. Cognitive development occurs in predictable stages.

So if I were developing a curriculum for 7th graders, I would ask the questions

1. How can the students practically apply this tool in their everyday lives, i.e. studies, athletics, hobbies?
2. Given their short attention span and POV, what would grab the students attention and entice them to take it further?

Those two questions alone, answered, should yield a sizable listing of material for the classroom and lab.

Check out www.funderstanding.com.

[FulciLives]

I grew up using a Commadore VIC-20 and then a Commadore C-64 which I had until my freshman year in college (1990) when I got my first Intel/Dos/Win computer with the then brand spanking new Windows 3.0

In my high school we only used Apple II computers and we had a room of them which had about maybe a dozen machines. Basically we played OREGON TRAIL on it ... I don't recall doing much else with it. My high school offered a typing class where we learned on real old-school IBM typewriters.

Anyways my point was that my freshman year in college was 1990 - 1991 and I think it was the 2nd semester that I had to take a "basic computer" class. I remember we had to do bullshit like remember "commands" in WordPerfect. I don't remember any of them now and barely then but we had to memorize stuff like, "shft-F7" which would spell check the highlighted word or some dumb shit like that. It was a totally stupid way of teaching computers. I also remember having to do the same thing with dBase III or was it dBase IV LOL

The computers we used in class were simple IBM/Intel made computers running DOS but not Windows.

That 1991 college computer class concentrated on really only 3 things ... WordPerfect, dBase and Lotus.

At the time there was no internet at least nothing really "open" to the public. I seem to recall that happening 1 or 2 years later. I remember the frustration of trying to figure out shit like Gopher or chatting on IRC and then the world seemed so much brighter when I first used Mosiac and then shortly after this thing called Netscape that seemed to be Mosiac on steroids and even IRC got the overall with mIRC etc.

Damn I feel old now

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[gadgetguy]

Damn I feel old now

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

YOU feel old...

[Supreme2k]

Did anyone notice that this thread was started by RKelly?


Why is R Kelly asking about 7th graders?


Are R Kelly and Woddy Allen opening up a girls school?

Where have you been?

I made that joke days ago, ya hack!

[slacker]

FulciLives,

You're just a baby!

[mikel]

FulciLives,

You're just a baby!

No fooling.
I remember building an ANALOG computer in high school.
It worked kinda like an electronic sliderule.

signed,
'ol fossil