They grew up with a phone or tablet in their hands, can put you up on a video for TikTok in the blink of an eye or find a friend on Instagram, contact whoever they want on six different social networks. But these “digital children” are often strangely helpless in front of a computer. Don’t ask most of them to add an attachment to an email, properly format a job in Word, or set up a printer.
Without overgeneralizing and without falling into easy criticism of young people, parents and experts note this astonishing gap. Should we be worried about it? How to explain it?
“Abyssal Void”
A professor at the University of Montreal, Marie Laberge has seen this phenomenon emerge “over the past fifteen years”. The holder of the ADO Prév-IT Research Chair, specializing in the prevention of work incapacity from adolescence, does not pose as a specialist in the subject, on which there are very few studies: she notes this, That’s all about his university students and his children in CEGEP.
PHOTO LÉONIE LAPERRIÈRE, PROVIDED BY MARIE LABERGE
Professor at the University of Montreal and holder of the ADO Prév-IT Research Chair, Marie Laberge
I realize the abyssal void of their knowledge compared to basic tools like Word. Sometimes it’s so all wrong that I have to redo the whole layout.
Marie Laberge, professor at the University of Montreal
Open a computer, navigate in a file explorer, display the pagination marks, “they can’t find their way around. They are always on drives [des espaces de sauvegarde infonuagique]but don’t know how to save a job”.
Éric Bruillard, professor of education at the University of Paris and researcher for more than 40 years, has a very specific anecdote that he considers instructive: several of his master’s students do not know how to add page breaks in their works. “They put carriage returns, it’s completely crazy. My hypothesis is that they are no longer in the materiality of computing, whereas the page is a material notion. »
Intuitive or efficient?
In 2008, Mr. Bruillard already signed a publication which defended the idea that the digital fluency of young people, in social networks or for leisure, was poorly transferred to a school or professional context.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ÉRIC BRUILLARD
The professor of education at the University of Paris and researcher Éric Bruillard
“We’ve been saying the same thing for 20 years, but it feels like we’re preaching in the desert,” said the professor in an interview. Things are changing, but we find the same shortcomings, the same misunderstandings. »
Applications popular with young people have one thing in common: their interface is intuitive, simplified, and they can be mastered very quickly. Nothing to do with heavier software, but more powerful on the computer which requires learning.
“If in the first 10 or 20 seconds, they don’t know how to use it, they change, period, he notes. They don’t have the reflex to look a little further, take a little time. »
Stéphane Villeneuve, professor of digital integration at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), sees the same gap among future teachers. “They’re very adept on their phones, especially with social media, but when you have to ask them to do tasks with software, it’s not as natural. But they will eventually learn it, they have this highly developed ability. »
Two universes
We may consider smart phones as small laptops, they do not generate the same link at all, underlines Raoul Kamga, a colleague of Mr. Villeneuve in digital integration in education at UQAM.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RAOUL KAMGA
Raoul Kamga, professor of digital integration at the University of Quebec in Montreal
A new telephone appears every three or four months, we are informed of it, the companies advertise. When it is defective or it is too slow, we immediately think of changing it. When a computer breaks down, their first thought is to change it, not to upgrade or change the battery.
Raoul Kamga, professor of digital integration at the University of Quebec in Montreal
Similarly, the ease of use of applications has a price, believes Éric Bruillard: exploration and deepening are not encouraged. “This idea of confinement is of interest to developers. We make the user captive by making things easier for him, and getting out becomes more and more difficult. »
Towards a wall… or not
But is it so important to do the right layout in Word, to be skilled in Excel or to master the hundreds of sophisticated functions of a computer? “It’s not an essential skill like knowing how to read and count, but all those who are destined for university studies will have to produce writings, answers Marie Laberge. It’s not essential at first glance, but when they go to work, if their boss is forced to redo all their reports…”
If older users generally have difficulty understanding that everything can be done on a phone or tablet, Stéphane Villeneuve is more optimistic. “It’s really a matter of habit. For them, it’s natural: they will find it less difficult to do Excel on a tablet than us who have become comfortable with computers. »
Raoul Kamga bluntly believes that “there is an intergenerational conflict that is coming”. “We run after technology, but not after technological skills. Those who are going to go into computing are not going to program on their telephone. What do tomorrow’s employers want? We will have to make them aware of the coming generation, put strategies in place to support these young people. »