Technology across the generations

What people are doing today with the internet is likely very different than what they were doing when they first logged into a computer.

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This is the third of four stories about digital literacy.

Ken Wallin remembers his first university computer assignment involving key punch cards and then connecting computers to phones to dial up internet connections as a conservation officer in South Dakota. 

Now he regularly uses the computer at home and at the Seward Senior Center to access the internet for email, Facebook, research, personal business and occasional games of solitaire. But it’s different if he wants to talk to his grandchildren in Seward or those further away.

“If I really want to talk to them, I call them,” Wallin said.

Ed Zak used computers in his work at the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Postal Service. He is confident getting to information he trusts on the internet and uses it frequently for email and Facebook, sometimes at the Seward Senior Center. 

But for making appointments, he prefers a phone call where he has a voice and a name to confirm arrangements.

Lynette Broderick, fresh out of the university in the late 1970s as a media specialist in the Dorchester schools, was issued the challenge of helping staff use the new Apple computers they had obtained, and worked with Educational Service Unit 6 staff to understand what this new technology could do for teachers. 

“I was really enamored with everything that it could do,” she said. 

She had a long career as a media specialist and teacher in the Seward schools and now cites post-career technological milestones like her first Zoom meeting during the pandemic and being able to navigate a long road trip with her phone. 

But she is happiest about the exposure Facetime has given her and her husband, Jack, when it comes to their grandchildren who live in Oregon. They are able to see the grandchildren who live in Lincoln, but getting to Portland is more challenging.

“We are opening birthday presents and Christmas presents” via Facetime, Broderick said. “The distance used to prevent us from really watching our grandchildren grow up.”

She marvels at people in their 90s who jump into technology, and the 30-year-olds who are usually willing to “hold our technology hands” as she learns something new. 

Where and how people first connected to the internet and what they do with the internet today varies greatly within and across generations. The common thread is that what people are doing today is likely very different than what they were doing when they first logged into a computer.

It is difficult to imagine where technology will take today’s toddlers who expect to see a face with every voice they hear on a phone or think printed books should have digital links to other pictures. 

In the past two decades, schools have made computers more available in the form of labs, classroom-based tablets or laptops, or equipment assigned to each student. 

Today, technology education begins as early as kindergarten, with most kindergarten and first grade classrooms giving each student access to a technical device, even if it is not used throughout the day. 

Shanna Opfer teaches an instructional technology course at Concordia University, where she is associate professor of education, elementary education director, and holder of the Janet Cramer Endowed Professorship. 

The course is designed to help future educators learn what technology is, what it means to teach it and how they can equip their students with the skills they will need to teach others.

“Just today, we were talking about digital citizenship and skills,” she said last week. 

In a world saturated with information, disinformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and quickly evolving technology, it is a hot topic.

Digital literacy is one of six 21st Century skills educators strive to teach their students. The other five are communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and informational literacy, Opfer said. 

“It is the next new thing that teachers are being asked to teach,” she said, similar to inclusion of social and emotional skills in earlier curriculums. 

Digital literacy – the ability to do what it takes to live in a digital world, as defined in the first story in this series – involves viewing technology as both a subject to learn and a tool to learn about other things.

“There are all kinds of new things our society and world is presenting our kids with,” Opfer said and developing those 21st Century skills can help them better understand it.

Current and future educators are studying how to navigate “this very interesting moment.”

“The goal of using technology is that we can do things we could not do before,” Opfer said. “We are training them to not only use the tools, but how you might use the tools to engage the students.”

Opfer uses the example of a teacher using a worksheet to measure student learning, but when the opportunity allows, the teacher might instead engage students – or active student learning – by assigning a collaborative project to show what they have learned about the topic.

“I think the challenge for teachers is figuring out the time,” when there is already a full curriculum, she said. “But I think it is more effective if we can layer it in.” 

Being digitally literate is not the same thing as having a digital device in hand at all times, Opfer said. 

In fact, it is the opposite. With manageable use, digital tools can help people use their digital tools to address the daily tasks, chores, challenges and goals they have, freeing up time for other things that do not require them to be connected. 

Even for Broderick who sees great value in how computer learning helps people use multiple senses to understand a topic, connect to an event being broadcast via YouTube, or find answers to household problems on the internet, there are limits.

“The convenience is incredible, but nothing beats the face-to-face conversation,” she said. 

Residents of the Seward County area may have more opportunities to learn about digital opportunities and cybersafety in the coming months as the Seward County Broadband Task Force broadens its efforts to include educational programs as well as broadband connections.

The Seward County Broadband Task Force involves the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership (SCCDP), Seward County Board of Commissioners, Southeast Nebraska Development District, industry partners and other interested residents. The group is looking at ways to help people use those connections for telehealth, education, jobs, and communication with family and friends.

Jacob Jennings, vice president and director of community affairs at the SCCDP, said a recent survey by the group drew 55 responses from Seward, Milford and Utica. They were asked about the kinds of adult educational programs they would like to see in Seward County.

While the response count is small, he said most who replied consider themselves “intermediate” level technology users and the three most frequently identified topics for possible training sessions were device navigation, internet safety and photo editing and sharing. 

Other topics suggested by a good number of respondents include AI, email and online banking.

As the group moves forward, the project will expand to include schools, libraries, churches, clinics and civic groups to improve peoples’ digital literacy, access to device repair, and promotion of ways technology can enhance their quality of life.

Next week’s topic: Entrepreneurship, remote work and next gen users