Are We Preparing Students for the World They’re Actually Walking Into?

Have you ever paused to think about how technology has transformed so many aspects of Our Lives? I mean, really stopped to think. Depending on your age will depend on your reaction for sure I know when I talk to my parents who are in their 70s they do their best to keep up but they only know just a tip of what is really out there maybe you're in your fifties like me and you went to school with no social media there were no cell phones you might have played lemonade stand or Oregon Trail on a computer in the back of the classroom and then I look at Teenagers and they don't know life without a cell phone or a computer.

We talk about what skills students need now and what they will need for the future. Now, with technology rapidly growing, it's difficult to stay even one step behind.

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the growth of technology that I've seen throughout my years of teaching. In 2001, I started my teaching career. I was a high school business teacher, teaching courses ranging from money management to business law, word processing, and keyboarding.  So, focusing on the technology, high school students were learning how to use word processing and spreadsheets and how to type efficiently on the keyboard.

Now, let's fast forward to 2013,  I am teaching the same tools to grades three through five.   now mind you, my school district was behind, and many other schools throughout the country are already teaching their younger students these skills.  But within 12 years, I went from teaching high school students the same skills that I was now teaching to grades 3 through 5. In 2015, I was asked to teach computer literacy to students in grades K-5. So now, 14 years later, those same skills shifted from 12th grade down to kindergarten. And as I said already, other schools started much sooner than we did.

 During those years of teaching computer literacy. I introduced my students to as much technology as possible, augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics, and especially computational thinking. I pushed to have keyboarding be a focus throughout the year and requested that students have access to internal email accounts to further develop real-world skills.

Now robotics, coding, AI, computer science, computational thinking, future ready skills are being taught at the kindergarten level and continue to develop throughout the school years. These technology tools and buzz words are a sign not delay the start of your student’s future. Open the doors to the different possibilities by inviting technology into your classroom.

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About the Author

Allison has over a decade of experience in education, spanning roles as a teaching assistant, AIS (Academic Intervention Services) math teacher, high school business teacher, and most recently, a digital literacy instructor. Her dedication earned her "Teacher of the Year" nominations in 2000 in Providence, Rhode Island, and in 2020 in Broadalbin, New York.