Reading and Maturity for more Ubiquitous Computing

I got sent this link to an article Edward C. Baig this morning (hence posting on a Saturday) from USAToday that points out:

Immaturity and poor reading skills partly explained the youngsters’ lackluster performance, the study concluded. So did the teens’ weak research skills and unwillingness to tough it out when a site posed design obstacles.

I think this is present in more than just teens (especially the later part), when it comes to computer literacy. If people are not able or willing to read, then most if not all the other literacies that that emerge through the computer are not accessible. There is only so much that can be discovered by just clicking when it comes to application that manipulate digital media. Without reading, Photoshop is a black box (though some would argue that it is anyway) in terms of understanding. Even simple video editing can be quite difficult as I have seen with iMovie when people are not reading directions, help and just are not mature enough to “rough out” the tough spots. They just want everything fed to them.

When demonstrating apps to preservice teachers, I get the feeling that a portion of them are thinking – I don’t really have to know this, someone else will take care of all this for me. Thoughts on Teaching mentions something similar here,here and here as he sees apathy being a major hurdle to cross on the teacher side to get technology taught in every classroom.