Mouse, touch and keys
Computer Science · Early Years · The School
Pointing and clicking
The mouse (or your finger on a screen) moves a little arrow called the pointer. Move it slowly onto a picture, then press once — that is a click. Press, hold and slide — that is a drag. Practise clicking on things and dragging them around: your hand is learning to talk to the computer.
The letter board
A keyboard is a board of letter buttons — but they are NOT in alphabet order! Find the letters of your name, one by one. The big long key at the bottom is the space bar: it makes the gap between words. Typing your own name is your first real computer skill.
Computers follow orders
Here is the big secret: computers are not clever. They only ever do what a person tells them — click here, type this, open that. People are the clever ones; the computer just follows instructions very, very fast. Remembering this makes you the boss of the computer, never the other way round.
Open a drawing program and try to draw a line by clicking once at each end without holding the button. Nothing happens, or you get two dots. The computer did exactly what you did — it was never told to join them. Now press and HOLD while you move, and release at the end. A line. The computer did not learn anything; you gave it a different instruction.