Teach Kids to Use CTRL+F (and Other Useful Tech Tips)
Here’s something that blew my mind: 90% of the participants in Google’s studies didn’t know they could use the CTRL+F (or Command+F, if you’re on a Mac) keyboard shortcut to search for words in a document or webpage. The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal then goes on to say:
I can’t believe people have been wasting their lives like this either! It makes me think that we need a new type of class in schools across the land immediately. Electronic literacy. Just like we learn to skim tables of content or look through an index or just skim chapter titles to find what we’re looking for, we need to teach people about this CTRL+F thing.
I think this is a great idea. I was recently talking with some relatives about the need to teach students (and others) how to effectively use and master the technology at their fingertips, i.e., the modern equivalent of that typing class that I took in seventh grade. As technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, and being able to sift through massive amounts of information becomes an increasingly necessary skill, people will need better education on how to make sense of it all. And teaching them keyboard shortcuts is as good a starting point as any.
To that end, here are a couple of pertinent resources: