Basic Computer Skills for Kids

“Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today.” – Jennifer Fleming

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The world is moving impossibly fast, and it can be intimidating to prepare and equip your children properly. But one thing we do know, is that computers and the internet are here to stay and that our kids will be using them on a daily basis. Like driving lessons and taking a driving test, there are a few basic skills that they will need in order to function effectively in this tech-driven future.

Like learning to drive, you won’t always be there to hold your childrens’ hands when they need to figure things out for themselves. As parents we should encourage our children to master not only typing, but also less obvious skills such as routinely saving and backing up their information, and some basic troubleshooting in order to be able to solve the most common software problems that they might encounter.

Here are a few basic technical skills that they will need in order to use their computers effectively.

  • Touch typing. This is an essential skill, and will save your children time and frustration. Find some useful touch-typing games online here  or here.
  • Using shortcut keys for basic commands that are used often will save time and make life easier. In fact, some parents might also need pointers. Find a useful tips here.
  • Saving and backing up – to an external hard drive, or to a cloud-based memory. We should all back up and regularly save information, but this becomes essential as more and more school tasks are done digitally and work is performed online. Read more  here.
  • Usernames and passwords – need we say more? Read this article and help your children  protect accounts and sensitive information.
  • General Troubleshooting for children – Try this site.

For more tips on how to ensure our children grow into responsible computer users and good digital citizens, click here to read an article from High Impact Mom