Jason White wrote:
There is, by contrast, a far greater difference between how a relatively uninformed user and an educated user can interact with a computer to solve problems. For example, there are many tasks that I can perform much more efficiently than an uneducated user because I know how to use the shell and the basic UNIX tools, or how to use an editor such as Emacs or Vi, or how to write little shell scripts to automate repetitive tasks. Notice that this is not a matter of fixing the system when it breaks - hence not analogous to what the car mechanic can do. Rather, my problem solving ability is greater, and this is partly a function of my level of knowledge by comparison with the neophyte's.
The relatively uninformed users can still operate a computer to solve problems, of course, but not to the same extent or with the same efficiency and generality as the skilled users. So there's a good case to be made for having more people toward the relatively skilled end of the scale, and this requires educational effort, which explains why the issues discussed in this thread truly are significant. A computer's problem-solving ability depends partially on the user's skill and knowledge. Usually, the more capable a software tool is of solving problems, the more knowledge is required to use it, or to use it well.
In that context, I would argue that rather than teaching kids how to use winword -- or bash, for that matter -- you would teach them how to use google, how to RTFM, how to interact with either the FOSS support community or the proprietary vendor's equivalent support channels. That is, given an ARBITRARY problem, how to - recognize the class of problems to which it belongs; - find others who want to solve problems in that class; - find EXISTING solutions to same; and - find tools to facilitate solution of same. I dunno about anyone else here, but for me step #1 of a problem tends to be to wander over to <people who know stuff> and say "hey, I have <problem>, I think <tool> might be a reasonable approach, but is there a better way?" Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with computer science, or science, or computers... I think when I first ran into something like this, it was in primary school, and it was called "learning how to use the library" or something like that. (...well, except insofar as the support community requires you to know how to use a web forum or IRC or a telephone or whatever.)