How students access technology today

 

Image source: https://x.com/TheTicketingBiz/status/494469316398817280

The above image shows how generations perceive technology through the ages. This is interesting to me to look at because I notice in my own family how technology has changed and how each of us perceive it. My dad would be a baby boomer and he is actually pretty good with some technology. Far better than his friends. However, he works still and need to keep up with the times. My sister would be Gen X and again is good with technology. She needs to keep up for her job and her kids. Myself and brothers are Gen Y. I would say I am pretty good with technology and using it in my everyday life, especially at work when I am teaching. My older brother is far superior when it comes to knowing technology and how to utilize it. He keeps up with every new thing and is able to help his whole family with troubles. He is often helping his brother-in-law with his technology issues.

Which brings me to discussing Gen Z. They are immaculate with technology. The way my students and nieces/nephews use technology to help them is amazing and nerve wrecking. With this new AI answers are at their fingertips. This is both great and scary because they can get the answers right away but is it truly the right answer and is it truly thought out by them. 

I read a few reports on the Dawn of AI and Understanding the Digital Access Divide in American Schools.    Both great reads and very informative. In the Dawn of AI the article speaks about the use of AI in home and school. On page 4 of the article it states that:

• 56% of teens say they have used search engines with AI-generated results, such as Bing, Google SGE, or Brave Summarizer. 

• 51% have used chatbots/text generators, such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Snap's My AI. • 34% have used image generators, such as DALL-E, Photoshop AI, or Bing Image Creator. 

• 22% of teens have used AI video generators, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, or Google VideoPoet.

My first thought is that is awesome that students are able to have these tools at their disposal but my second thought would be how detrimental is it to their taking in information. I mean AI is helping them but are they taking in any information that they can use in the future, that they can use on their own without the help of AI.  On page 5 the report says:

 The most commonly reported activities are using gen AI for homework help (53%), to stave off boredom (42%), and to translate something from one language to another (41%).

Again if 53% are using it for homework help, what does that mean? Are they using it to complete their homework or just to assist? My hope is AI is not making students lazy and uneducated. 

I could keep going with the statistics on AI and how students are using it, however I would like to discuss the other topic. The Dawn of AI is a great read and I encourage you to look through it. Very informative. To quote the articles conclusions "As we seek to leverage the benefits of these new technologies, it is crucial that we engage young people to help us understand how they encounter risks to privacy, increased bias, and misinformation in ways that may differ from adult experiences. This first stage—in which we work to understand the possibilities and limitations of generative AI in education and learning—is not only about adapting to new technologies, but also about rethinking how we teach, learn, and prepare the next generation for the future." (page 48, Dawn of AI)

There is another report that I found interesting Understanding the Digital Access Divide in American Schools. 

"The digital access divide often both mirrors and exacerbates existing educational inequalities. Students without adequate access to digital resources struggle to participate fully in online learning, access educational materials, collaborate with peers, or develop the digital skills and literacies needed for post-graduation success. These disparities can impact a student’s ability to participate fully and benefit from digital learning opportunities often taken for granted by their historically better-resourced peers.” (2024 National Educational Technology Plan) 

To go back to before Covid, technology in my school was there but not as widely utilized like it is now. Covid hit and schools had to figure out a way to still educate students. I remember my nephew being given a rented computer because he did not have one to access online learning. I thought that was great the school could provide. Yet there are other schools that are not as luckily and financially able to do such a thing. Growing up we were financially able to have a computer we all shared in the home to complete work but again not every family could afford this. How does that divide the students and their learning capabilities?  In the article is says "ten years ago, only 1 in 5 teachers reported that their students had a personally assigned digital learning device (Chromebook, laptop, or tablet) that they could use in the classroom to support learning." (page 6) Now as of a year ago the article states that 84% k-12 have personally designated devices at their disposal. I can say this is completely accurate with my school. Before Covid we had shared tech carts and those were barely readily available. Now after Covid every student has 1:1 tech. 

This being said the article states majority of the time students are limited with these devices. They can only use them at school. This goes for my school as well. At my school we do not assign homework but other schools do and how is this dividing the students who still don't have access to computers at home to the ones that do. Understanding that their are reasons students cannot take devices home, it makes completing homework, if online is needed, hard. 

The other divide is the article states would be internet accessibility. Meaning some schools do not have the funds to pay for top speed for their school and students are reporting slow internet access. I know personally through donations our school has been able to boost our internet but not every school has that opportunity. This makes it hard for the students to complete assignments on time if they are trying to finish their homework before school ends.

In the end of the article it states " We encourage school and district leaders to utilize this report as a starting point for new discussions within your local community to both expand definitions of digital access and to seek new solutions to address the digital access divide in classrooms specifically." (page 20)

These reports are both valuable for educators to read. I found them most interesting in seeing how students access AI in school and how there is still a divide with technology in school and at home. AI is still new to me and I am unclear how to use it or if I want to use it. I really thought that with how technology is such a huge part of our home lives and school lives there would be less divide in technology uses though. 

I encourage all of you to look at both reports because they had some awesome graphics that unfortunately I could not put in this post.