I used to teach middle school students. Whenever my students would type essays or build a presentation, I was fortunate enough that my students had basic keyboarding and formatting skills. This made is so the bulk of my time was spent on the content of the assignment. Then I moved up and taught high school. This meant I was teaching the same students I had in middle school. Of course this made some parts of my daily life easier. When implementing technology, most high school students mainly had questions about what my expectations were, not so much about how to use the technology. Now my career has taken me to a place that I never thought I would go--elementary school.
I've taken for granted that although my current students have grown up with game consoles, tablets, and smart phones at their fingertips, it doesn't mean that using technology for my assignments is easy for them. For example, I had my fifth grade students work on a Google slide that I created for them. Students were supposed type their information inside the text boxes I had put in different areas on the slide. These particular students were very new to using technology this way. They were astonished--ASTONISHED that there was an Undo button. This came in handy for the multiple times students accidentally moved or deleted the text boxes. For my sixth grade students, I started them out with what I thought would be a simple task. I had them type their already hand written essays in a Google doc. Simple enough, right? This time I was the one shocked. Most of my students have more advanced cell phones than I do and spend more of their time on game consoles and online that I can imagine. But, with all of that, they didn't know basic formatting skills for an essay. I expected it to take them extra time because they are not used to typing. I never would've guessed that my students wouldn't know that you have to use the space bar after punctuation marks. Or that the Tab key would indent their paragraphs. Or that the Shift key will capitalize letters and that the computer doesn't always autocorrect it for them.
My students can do magical things when playing a video game, and they can maneuver through an app to help them study for class. They can use technology to showcase their personalities, or to find answers on a digital goose chase. But when it comes down to the "boring" skills of typing and formatting, these students look at me like it's a foreign language. I know that they would've learned these skills in the future, but it just made me wonder if that sometimes we get so caught up in technology that is fun and engaging that we forget there is a necessity for some foundational skills. I also think that teachers like me assume that since students are around technology all the time that they know how to use it. It was definitely an "A-ha" moment for me. I realized that I don't have to use the latest, greatest program or app to help my students learn in the classroom. Instead, I was able to improve my students' writing while teaching some keyboarding skills that will be beneficial for their future. Sometimes being one of the old fuddy-duddy teachers isn't the worst kind of teacher I can be.
I've taken for granted that although my current students have grown up with game consoles, tablets, and smart phones at their fingertips, it doesn't mean that using technology for my assignments is easy for them. For example, I had my fifth grade students work on a Google slide that I created for them. Students were supposed type their information inside the text boxes I had put in different areas on the slide. These particular students were very new to using technology this way. They were astonished--ASTONISHED that there was an Undo button. This came in handy for the multiple times students accidentally moved or deleted the text boxes. For my sixth grade students, I started them out with what I thought would be a simple task. I had them type their already hand written essays in a Google doc. Simple enough, right? This time I was the one shocked. Most of my students have more advanced cell phones than I do and spend more of their time on game consoles and online that I can imagine. But, with all of that, they didn't know basic formatting skills for an essay. I expected it to take them extra time because they are not used to typing. I never would've guessed that my students wouldn't know that you have to use the space bar after punctuation marks. Or that the Tab key would indent their paragraphs. Or that the Shift key will capitalize letters and that the computer doesn't always autocorrect it for them.
My students can do magical things when playing a video game, and they can maneuver through an app to help them study for class. They can use technology to showcase their personalities, or to find answers on a digital goose chase. But when it comes down to the "boring" skills of typing and formatting, these students look at me like it's a foreign language. I know that they would've learned these skills in the future, but it just made me wonder if that sometimes we get so caught up in technology that is fun and engaging that we forget there is a necessity for some foundational skills. I also think that teachers like me assume that since students are around technology all the time that they know how to use it. It was definitely an "A-ha" moment for me. I realized that I don't have to use the latest, greatest program or app to help my students learn in the classroom. Instead, I was able to improve my students' writing while teaching some keyboarding skills that will be beneficial for their future. Sometimes being one of the old fuddy-duddy teachers isn't the worst kind of teacher I can be.
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