Those aren't practical skills that need to be taught to secondary school students. They need to learn mathematics, writing, reading, literature, science, etc. They don't need to learn how to code, they don't need to learn how to make memes in Paint or youtube videos of themselves playing minecraft, nor how to play irrelevant (if fun) games like Chess.
>Only use for computers is for people to write documents, search online, print and... waste a lot of time on games, social networks.
We certainly were not allowed to be on social networks or games during computer lab time whe{re,n} I went to high school.
>Then, test taking could use more automation. Lots of teachers do their test taking by hand... Grading tests without an written answer is very easy to implement.
That's simply not true. Test taking is done in written form for good reason. It's possible to draw diagrammes, to write emphasis, use italics, etc. without learning some arcane editor or (worse) syntax when you're meant to be doing a test.
Marking tests without a written answer might be easy to implement, but that just encourages more fucking shit tests like they have in the US, where there are few written answers. EVERY test should be ENTIRELY written answers.
Then no matter what activity you pick in life, being self-sufficient with regards to presenting and illustrating your ideas or doing some basic marketing is always valuable.
Same with code. Even if you do not plan to be a programmer, having a basic understanding what programming is can help you in interdisciplinary settings.
Written questions and diagrams are a good idea. But tests can be constructed in many ways. For alternative based questions grading with computer can be more productive and less error-prone, freeing the teacher to focus in more important tasks such as preparing lessons.
While you could teach practical skills such as
- how to process images, audio, video
- how to code
- math beyond silly games featuring anthropomorphic neotenized animals
- workshops for chess and go
- use one of the awesome open source software for chemistry, geometry, astronomy, etc...
Only use for computers is for people to write documents, search online, print and... waste a lot of time on games, social networks.