Tech Is New Basic
Kai Dupé • May 9, 2021
Literacy now includes digital literacy
Over the years I have had several discussions on Facebook regarding technology integration in our schools. Many people still wish to hold on to this idea that our schools should not focus on technology and just focus on the basics. They are mistaken. These attitudes are why the digital divide persists. I am so tired of hearing this silly argument.
This mindset must be changed. And to be honest I spend a great deal of time trying to do just that. I do not want the next generation of our young people to be the designated serfs of the information age. What exactly are the BASICS? Most folks would define the basics as reading, writing and arithmetic.
So, the idea is that we should not teach our young people about technology but focus on the basic subjects. Here is the problem with that. Do you think those subjects are taught without using technology? What exactly do these folks think a chalkboard, a pen, a book, a pencil, or an overhead projector is? These things ARE technology.
What do you consider the basics? What do you consider technology? There is no such line between learning the basics and using technology. Therefore, I use the word INTEGRATION. It should all be one and the same the way it was when I was in school. I was not taught ‘the basics’ sans technology.
Technology was all around us while we learned the basics. Technology is now part of the basics. Those who are unable to navigate technology will be locked out the same way that years ago those who could not read or write were locked out. Remember we did not learn our basics without technology. A book is a form of technology.
No one said learn how to read, and you can use the technology (book) after you learn to read. No. You learned to read from a book. And now you may learn to read an eBook or an electronic book using an e-reader. Please tell me what is the difference?
Look at the comments from a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer science department regarding the teaching of computer science in our schools. These comments are from a recent study:
The point is not that every student needs to become a computer scientist, but that all students have the basic knowledge they need to understand an increasingly technological world, said Leigh Ann Sudol, a PhD student in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department and another study co-author.
What is considered basic has changed and technology has become the new basic!
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