Quoting from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/tasmanian-school-children-lacking-in-digital-literacy/8737842
Kindergarteners should learn coding, amid Tasmania's struggles with digital literacy: expert
ABC News, 24 July 2017, By Linda Hunt
Children from kindergarten onwards should be taught coding to help improve digital literacy in Tasmania, which is an even bigger issue for the state than the NBN rollout, an industry spokesman says.
Industry expert William Kestin, who is chief executive of TasICT, has appeared at a federal parliamentary inquiry's Hobart hearings into the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout.
He said from an industry perspective there had been improvements in the NBN rollout in Tasmania, but there were issues about the ability of Tasmanians to fully utilise the service.
"Digital literacy is probably the most important issue that you will hear us talking about," Mr Kestin said.
"Without digital literacy, it doesn't matter how connected we are as an island if people don't know how to use it."
Mr Kestin said kindergarten children should be taught coding and the older population given more help understanding technology.
"As we all know, we struggle with our level of literacy here on the island generally," he said.
"But from a digital literacy perspective much more needs to be done to be able to invest in how we are training young people and old people together to be able to understand how technology is used.
"We have to invest in not only just training young people from kinder onwards to be able to understand coding and use technology, but we also need to look at our mature population and say how can we best give them the resources to help them manage their lives."
Tasmania last in Australia on digital economy
Mr Kestin said Tasmania fared poorly in Telstra's 2016 "Digital Inclusion" report.
"From a state perspective, we were ranked last in the country last year," he said.
The 2017 report is due within the next few days and Mr Kestin said he was not expecting the status to change anytime soon, as there was "virtually no investment" in digital literacy in the last state budget.
"So digital literacy, not just as it relates to regional areas, but to Tasmania's population is critical," he said.
The inquiry will also hold hearings in Launceston and Burnie.
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