An interesting and extensive post about generation Zs lack of understanding around the file system. Most of the pupils l teach, 10×11 years, have even less of a clue. Being brought up on phones and tablets. Being 1-2-1 iPad in school will not help. We do try towards the end of primary seven to use our laptops a bit more as they will move to PCs in high school. It is hard to get up much enthusiasm for the process given the time it takes to get up and running with a PC compared to an iPad.
I’m a folders person myself, but not particularly well organised. I do have a fair understanding of file paths, transitioning from classic Mac to OSX with slightly different representations of file pasts certainly helped that. URLs can help too, but browsers want to hide those now.
Modern college students aren’t organizing their files into folders and directories, forcing some professors to rethink the way they teach programming.
@johnjohnston Hmm. Part of me cheers at the thought that kids aren’t being shackled to hierarchical thinking. Part of me laments the loss of what is an important tool for organizing. Strict hierarchies are not nature’s way, but they sure do help us humans to better understand.
@fgtech I guess because folders were the only option when I first used computers (mac os 7 point something) it was too ingrained when tagging & apps came along to give up. Folders feel like a strict version of tags to me anyway. I do search a lot on the desktop but feel happier when things are tucked away;-)
@johnjohnston Totally ingrained; I know what you mean. I go back to the Apple //e, swapping floppies to load software. I suspect that happy tucked away feeling comes from knowing you’ll be able to find your data again. What if there are other ways to get that feeling?
@fgtech there should be an emoji for that feeling;-) I wonder about alternatives. The good thing about a hierarchy is I don’t need such a good memory. I can drill down. Of course this relies on me having organised well, which doesn’t always happen.