The Tech Generation Can’t Use Tech
In elementary school, I have fond memories of “Computer Lab”, a class that took place in the Computer Lab. We learned to format Word documents, how to spot fishy websites, and, most importantly to me, got to doodle on Kid Pix. By fifth grade, I was comfortable making PowerPoints, iMovies, and a range of other digital tasks asked of me by my teachers. In ninth grade, I was handed a MacBook Air to keep for high school, a breakthrough in the county’s attempt for tech equity across household. I couldn’t believe we each had a laptop that traveled home to school, equipped with every possible app I could need for my education.
As a part of Gen Z, I was among the first to be apart of this 1-1 tech pilot. Now, seemingly across the country, 1-1 tech has become ubiquitous. My third, fourth, and fifth graders at the public charter where I teach have an assigned Chromebook adorned in stickers or hand drawn pictures to demonstrate the student’s personality. I ended my high school career and started my college career online, demonstrating how valuable I see this tech to be. After solely teaching first grade, I was excited to have older students so we could make the digital projects I recalled from my youth. However, I was surprised to find my students had no clue how to use the technology they were given.
Despite the number of students with cell phones and smart televisions at home, the same kids ripping through levels of Fortnite on the iPad are nonplussed by a laptop. The United States Census Bureau states that while 96% of urban households have broadband internet access, only 81% have a laptop or desktop computer. While I thought swapping the computer for the smartphone could be a reason for a decline in tech literacy, I was proven wrong. In 2003, a couple of years before I started elementary school and received computer education, only 61% of US households had a computer. Why is it that Gen Alpha struggles so much with the laptop?
Perhaps the novelty of the computer has worn off. The 2000s were a wild decade for the innovation of technology. Bulky desktops as thick as televisions shrank, the laptop became lighter, more portable and affordable to the average consumer. Schools like mine, perhaps to show how forward thinking they were, installed computer labs, which later transformed to computer carts of laptops rolled from class to class. Still, we travelled to the lab, even in middle and high school, to receive our education on how to use the technology entrusted to us.
There are no dedicated computer rooms at the school where I teach, nor at any of the schools where those in my network teach. I can let go of the computer lab as a bygone of the past for elementary schools, but where are the tech literacy classes? I attempt to teach as we go, but with the brisk pace of modern curriculum there’s no time to sit and do an hour long lesson on how to format a Google Doc. Even when I manage to fit formatting knowledge into my lesson, the information is not retained. I have taught students how to change the size of their font twenty times over, and I will undoubtably repeat the lesson tomorrow. Across all grades, students type with two fingers, spend minutes searching for keys on their keyboard. A colleague of mine reported spending more than half a class period teaching students to copy and paste.
All of this to say, this is not the students’ fault. It is hard as an adult with fingers effortlessly flying across the keys, launching dozens of emails in a single sitting, to recall being a child struggling to remember File → Cut → Paste. Technology has become an integral part of our world, but that doesn’t mean we can assume our students will know how to use it. With an insurmountable amount of pressure on teachers to produce test scores and data, it can feel impossible to carve out dedicated computer knowledge lessons. Using a computer has become a critical life skill. Even if the student does not have access to one at home, it is likely their future job will require the use of computer, especially as AI encroaches on our lives.
Perhaps we don’t have a need for the computer lab anymore, but in a tech-centric world, let’s put computer education back on our list of priorities.
