I find this very hard to believe, you can’t be a part of the modern world and not have basic computer knowledge.
Academic performance is about performing well on closed book written exams covering narrow subjects. The whole system is designed for 19th century teaching and testing. Using a computer does not help with that whatsoever and may in some cases hurt (by distracting someone who should be studying).
I tutor high school kids as a volunteer (next year will be my 10th year doing so). Over that time period I have noticed a sharp decline in a lot of basic academic skills: mental arithmetic (without a calculator), spelling, grammar, handwriting. These are the very skills one needs to master to perform well on closed book exams. Your ability to research a topic or get help from Google (incl. spellcheck and grammar check in Google Docs) or ChatGPT is of no benefit whatsoever when all you’ve got is a pencil and a piece of paper in front of you.
Iirc from the abstract. It’s talking about a pretty specific laptop made from the OLPC project. That notebook was pretty bad and closed. Argentina had a project like this, but they gave Dell notebooks or something like that with Windows and the most savi kids could hack them and install Linux on them. As an anecdote, one of the most important artists of Argentina started with a computer from that project and a pirated copy of fruity loops.
A lot of kids with laptops have little computer knowledge. It’s a tool that they learn the bare minimum to use, not to fix, troubleshoot, or tailor to suit their uses.
I have my skillset because I had to fix all my electronics when they broke and troubleshoot when my programs didn’t work the way I wanted.
… yeah bare minimum to use is what you need. Fixing computers does fuck all for anyone, also no one bothers repairing laptops anymore
TIL I’m no one
TIL my friend didn’t actually have a job and just gets paid to do nothing
I’ve heard there are songs for you
Yeah
also no one bothers repairing laptops anymore
Just because you don’t doesn’t mean no-one does it. I know plenty of people who do. I know plenty of local repair shops.
Of course if you are a mac user (which are made to be hard to repair) or otherwise have plenty of spare income just to buy a new computer every time the old breaks, but a lot of people dpn’t have that money these days.
That’s how you get a generation that needs to be taught how to use a printer when it’s dead simple if you have any basic troubleshooting skills.
Bare minimum is what you need to be stagnant and forget.
Also: an increasing number of devices are basically computer + function, so knowing how to fix basics or troubleshoot is what will help keep you from being another useless person waiting for a tech to come reboot.
Businesses repair laptops every day.
I’ve replaced 2 keyboards in my family in the last year, and 2 batteries.
I’ve replaced fans in laptops. Recently replaced the cpu paste in one.
Just because you never see it because everyone you know buys shitty consumer laptops, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Business-class laptops are maintainable, and they cost more because of it.
In the last year my friends in the SMB space have replaced half a dozen keyboards, numerous batteries, etc. And these are in companies that have regular replacement cycles.
So fixing computers has saved me from replacing a laptop for just $100 in parts in the last year alone. And time - I’m not waiting for some “expert” to tell me my keyboard is dead. I just ordered one online for $30.
The post title is hugely overstating the study: one country’s laptop-oriented program didn’t help academic performance for first adopters.
True. They still have to teach.
