Is the next generation being held back?

24th November 2015

Joe Bush

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The integration of technology in the lives of today’s children is commonplace, with most owning a smartphone and tablets being used as a regular learning tool in the classroom. You could therefore be forgiven for assuming that the current generation of children are infinitely more astute than their predecessors when it comes to technological skills and IT literacy.

However, a recent study has indicated that the abundance of new mobile technology, and the types of devices being used, has actually resulted in children learning a very different set of skills – to the detriment of digital skills.

The report conducted by Australia’s National Assessment Programme surveyed over 10,000 students and identified a noticeable decline in ICT literacy performance and warned against making the assumption that children who use tablets and other portable devices were more widely competent with technology.

The well-known Raspberry Pi project (a registered educational charity) aims to make children more computer literate. A credit card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, the Raspberry Pi uses a standard keyboard and mouse and enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python.

Speaking to the BBC about the research Eben Upton, pioneer of the Raspberry Pi, commented, “It's always been my belief that ‘appliance-like’ hardware platforms don’t encourage real computer literacy because there are missing rungs on the ladder between being a consumer and being a producer. There’s a place for tablets in education, but we need to get away from the idea that knowing how to pinch-zoom makes your toddler the next Bill Gates.”