Students should have foundational computer knowledge and skills.
Typing is one of the first computer skills every student should have, and early keyboarding instruction is critical to preventing the development of bad habits that are difficult to break. For example, students lacking formal keyboarding instruction are more likely to type with only one finger or stare at the keyboard while they type.
Middle school students should be able to type 15-25 words per minute. If your child is behind, they can easily catch up to the skill level they need to meet by dedicating 15-45 minutes daily, or a few days a week, to developing their keyboarding skills. There are thousands of free websites like Typing Club and Dance Mat Typing designed specifically to improve keyboarding skills.
Schoolwork adds up, and with hundreds of files saved to a student’s hard drive, the need for a system that addresses how and where students store their work is imperative. To ensure a student’s computer continues to function at its best, students must understand how to:
Visit our computer maintenance checklist to learn more about computers, organization, and helping your student keep their device in excellent condition.
The ability to troubleshoot and fix common computer issues is a must-have for everyone who uses a computer regularly. When this is missing, it’s easy for students to claim they can’t do their work, as the computer is “broken.” However, once kids master these troubleshooting skills, they easily solve their own problems.
Faced with “broken” computers, K–8 technology teacher Jacqui Murray created this Quick Tech Fixes for Kids infographic. It provides solutions for the 16 most common problems her students reported, such as a non-loading website, a frozen program, and a disappearing toolbar. Tape a copy of the infographic to your student’s school desk. With a bit of practice, they won’t need any assistance at all.
A very useful and popular online documenting platform. G Suite Learning Center provides training on everything included in G Suite such as google docs and business emails to online file storage, shared calendars, video meetings, and etc.
Alison and GCF (mentioned above) are also good resources in learning google docs and emails.
Microsoft Office is one of the world’s most popular business solutions with and is widely used in both the academic and professional fields. As such, your student should be familiar with its most well-known programs by the time they reach high school. These include:
Visit the Microsoft Office training page to find tutorials for these and other useful programs.
Computers offer many communication channels, such as email, chat, and social media posts. To use these channels correctly, you need to understand how messages should change depending on the context. For example, students must understand that writing an email is very different from writing a text message. Compare and Contrast the differences between an email and a text.
Students can email grandparents or other trusted adults using a shared family email. Also, both email and virtual school etiquette applies to emails with teachers or peers.
Another lesson that virtual school students must learn is how to be safe when going online. You may have taught your child to avoid suspicious sites and emails and stay safe on social networks, but the bad guys online get more devious every day. Here are some tips that can help kids stay safe online:
Looking for more prep tips for your student? Check out these essential skills they’ll need to have in order to prepare for the jobs of the future.
Computer-literate students understand how to use major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari and can switch between them naturally. They can add websites to “Bookmarks” or “Favorites” and understand how to clear browser history, cache, and cookies to resolve performance issues.
High school papers, assignments, and presentations often involve Internet research. Therefore, students need strong enough Internet navigation abilities to perform research for online high school courses.
While students don’t have too much trouble typing their queries into search engines like Google, they aren’t as effective at identifying legitimate sources or fact-checking.
Your kids will need your support in determining whether Internet sources are trustworthy. You want to show them how to think critically. For older students, work on identifying fake news, avoiding plagiarism, and writing citations.