Productivity = Based on a Computer?

This week, after reading and thinking about the integration of productivity suites, like Google and Microsoft, into the school scene, I really had to think about the ideas that were brought forward in class. The idea of us preparing students for the work force was one that stood out. Then I thought about how it is integrated into the classroom at the different age levels. As everyone would initially think, it is used a lot more the older you get – more so more now after Covid-19 than when I was growing up. In my Grade 3 classroom, we use Microsoft Teams that allows me to check in on their work and able to help my students fix things on my computer. With that being said, my very first year of teaching – 2021 – I used Teams consistently due to the pandemic and virtual learning when my class was out for two weeks. I also had to upload daily plans for students who were in quarantine while the rest of us were in school. I have always been privileged to teach in a building that has a computer cart with a computer for each student – and I only share the cart with one other class. My students are able to use a computer that has immediate access to Teams, Word, PowerPoint, etc. since our school and division is a Microsoft-based division. I think this idea of having the immediate access allows my students to have the chance to learn how to use these suites early in life – where when they are older they have that knowledge ingrained in their brains.

Growing up, we had tech class where we learned home row and how to type properly on the computer. We were trained how to research properly, and how to type without looking at the keyboard. That would have, at one time, been considered a skill necessary for people to know (in the same boat at handwriting). Students today need to know how to keep their privacy while online and how to interact online. During my internship, my Cooperating teacher was the Technology Integration Coach. Part of my time was spent to create information sheets for families. My first sheet was all about digital citizenship (looking at these now, I could have made them a lot nicer – personal opinion here).

The roles of productivity suites do prepare students for the workforce – some may think this isn’t good – I however disagree to a certain extent. I think preparing students for the workforce by providing them the chance to learn and use suites BEFORE they are required to allows for them to be actually prepared on how to use them properly – otherwise they are like my parents who never used productivity suites so they are constantly asking me for help, and don’t get me started on my grandparents. Where I agree with the idea of it being a bad thing is like in the article “How Google Took Over the Classroom” by The New York Times. In the article, it says that students who were graduating were told to swap their Google accounts from a school account to a personal account (NYT, 2017) (full quote below). Finding the balance to using these suites is a big part of being an educator, and a human being, but making sure we aren’t fully motivated by technology in regards to productivity is the big mission we are all on.

Every year, several million American students graduate from high school. And not only does Google make it easy for those who have school Google accounts to upload their trove of school Gmail, Docs and other files to regular Google consumer accounts — but schools encourage them to do so. This month, for instance, Chatfield Senior High School in Littleton, Colo., sent out a notice urging seniors to “make sure” they convert their school account “to a personal Gmail account.”

New York Times, 2017

How Google Took Over the Classroom. The New York Times. 2017, May 13.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/technology/google-education-chromebooks-schools.html