Report finds that tablets and smartphones are eroding teens’ digital literacy

A research report by Australia’s National Assessment Program has found that growing mobile device use among children meeting has led to a “significant decline” in basic digital literacy within a three-year span.

The reported studied 10,500 students from two age groups were studied; one completing primary school at approximately the age of 12 while the other consisted of 15-16 years in their fourth year of secondary school. When it compared IT literacy scores from 2011 to those taken in late 2014, the report observed a “significant decline in their ICT literacy performance compared to previous cycles.”  The core tenant put forth suggests that skills learned from tablets and smartphones are less direct than those acquired through computer use, and as such, less suitable for the workplace.

Not only was performance lower in 2014 than in any other year to date, but the number of teens meeting the basic standards in both groups declined, something which the report felt warranted “serious attention.” At this rate, elderly parents will be the ones defragging and reformatting their adult children’s computers, rather than the other way around.

The tasks examined by the test included the ability to set up the device and install software, use a blog and search engine as well as digital technology (computers, media players, GPS, etc.), communication/networking tools, and social networks to access, manage, and create information.

Results determined that increased reliance on tablets and smartphones had made the teens proficient at online communications while hampering the other skills.

Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton was not surprised at what the Australian research presented, explaining to the BBC that: “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.”

This is the same danger we face by extending the “gamification” found on mobile device operating, to our desktop computers.

Source: BBC