Learning about Tech in College — Isn’t it a Little Too Late?

At the age of 27, after a bachelor’s and a prior master’s, I learned for the very first-time last week in an MBA elective how the underlying technology behind the internet and computer works. Given that I have been so reliant on both computers and the internet for practically two decades — and especially during these times of COVID-19 — I was surprised to not have learned this ever before. I thought back to all of the classes I was required to take throughout middle school and high school and came up with this list: ELA, math, science, and social studies were all required of course but the additional mandated classes were arts, physical education, health, speech, and foreign language. I do remember taking a typing class, but let’s be real — I learned typing through AOL’s finest — AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).

To give further context, I am a former middle-school math and science teacher from Texas and also a former Assistant Director of an after-school program for middle school students in Harlem. I am currently stepping away from the public sector and getting my MBA. This got me thinking as to how over time I have observed the use of technology in the field of education increase exponentially, especially the use of computers and the internet. Yet, none of my students knew how computers or the internet works. Heck I am sure many of my teachers and school administration also didn’t know, myself included. If any technical issues came about, we were trained to think that it was solely the IT department’s concern.

Here is some perspective, as a student — which I am sure many of you still remember — all of my homework was done from worksheets and textbooks. I am sure many memories are running through your mind as you read this: “Complete all odd questions on page 324–326 for math homework”. When I was a teacher not too long ago, my students had a class set of textbooks, but there was no need for them to take the textbooks home or really even use them in class. They all had received not only a classroom set of Chromebooks, but also Chromebooks to take home to use for homework in which they could access the online textbook. This was not unique to just my classroom. As of January 2018, 25 million students use Chromebooks at school, 30 million students use the Google Classroom, and 80 million use the G Suite for Education. We can safely assume that number has increased. Even though this information is specific to computers and tech associated with How Google Took Over the Classroom, you can imagine how many more students are using other resources like Microsoft and other computer brands outside of Google’s Chromebooks. These students are sharing documents and storing data and files not knowing how their computers and internet work to make this possible! So why is that the case and what’s to blame?

What we can see overtime is that The Times Have Changed — Our Schools Haven’t. What that means is as I recalled the classes that I took when I was in middle and high school, it turns out that students now more than 10 years later are still taking the same classes and have the same requirements for middle school and high school. Although there has been an increase in electives that are now available to students such as computer science and others, research shows that since not all schools across the nation are equally resourced, not all students have the option to take computer science classes. Many education experts are wondering if classes like computer science and personal finance and economics — which have shown much significance in the lives for all people as they become adults — should be mandated and taught throughout all classrooms. Even I am wondering especially after what I learned for the first-time last week, should there be a class in middle school and/or high school that helps students understand how this entire world is at their fingertips through the hardware and software behind computers and the internet?

For the past decade, not only has there been a shortage of computer science education within K-12 education, but there has been a shortage of computer scientists in general whether that be programmers or else. Of course, even within this shortage there is even a bigger discrepancy among the lack of minority computer scientists including women and other racial and ethnic groups. We could point this to the unequitable resources that exist for schools across the nation where we see computer science and other offerings more prevalent in schools in affluent neighborhoods. However, we should first point the shortage to the lack of interest that may exist from students. It’s not their fault though. Their lack of interest can be due to the sheer lack of knowledge that the education system provides kids about computers, the internet, and tech in general. Unless there is some serious change that is made in keeping our curriculum and courses for middle school and high school up to date and up with the times, students will continue to take all the computers and internet for granted until they learn about it for the first time when they are 27. Who knows, by then it might be a little too late to learn that they may have wanted to make a career out of it.