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When I first started teaching computers eight years ago, my colleagues and I would joke that within a few years, we could be out of a job as more and more of our students would grow up with computers and technology. Known as Digital Natives, they would come to school already knowing the basics of computers and the Internet; things we struggled with through the 90's. But the truth is that this generation has not become the whiz kids with technology that we were expecting them to be.
While I don't have to teach as many of them what a Right-click is and a Left-click or explain how to Double-click, it still amazes me how many I still have to show how to work a mouse. Keyboarding is also still a challenge, but will probably be until we get rid of the QWERTY keyboard (if ever). Unfortunately, our students have been raised on tablets and smartphones where they don't need many computer skills. They know how to text and play games, but how to write a comment, or make a blog post, or what HTML is, forget about it. The good news is that it means job security for me to teach these skills when they get to my class.
The question is, what skills will they need for the future? For the immediate future I don't see the PC or laptop going away any time soon. Too many jobs still require them. As for tablet's I think we've seen them plateau and while they provide some utility in the work place, they won't be every where. Other forms of computing like voice activation, wearable, and AI is still a few years away and still won't be useful in all situations. So for the time being, using a keyboard and mouse (track pad) to communicate with others will still be the skills our students need and we're still a waiting for those Digital Natives who come to school with the basic computer skills we all need.
