Looking at the Ministry of Education (MoE) call for equality and equity in education, I am seriously becoming anxious for my students. With the renaissance taking place with even the term ‘Literacy’ to ‘Literacies’, the literacies skills required of students going forward into a highly digital world; into a fast-pacing technologically driven society/workplace; is so much different from what was required many years ago. I am seeing the digital divide getting wider and wider and the possibility of our students leaving our shores to live and study elsewhere in the world is as real as real can be. Yet, schools are not fully equipped with computers; teachers are not all trained in the use of Web 2.0 technologies. Are we cheating our students’ in terms of their technological literacy?
Take for instance, the basic skills necessary for accessing the World Wide Web or for engaging with Word Processing: opening up a document; typing using touch-typing skills; editing; saving and storing; navigating the web; organizing into files/folders; using graphics; importing photos/diagrams; rearranging information on a page; importing information from the web; and I can go on and on.
Are we truthfully equipping students with the necessary skills to face the high-tech world with confidence? How many of our students can we say we have been influential in ensuring that they are equipped with these basic skills? Is the MoE/Are we taking our children’s lives/future for granted? How close is the MoE in providing support to all school, for all students, in terms of access to technology? Shouldn’t Technology/Information Technology be on the Curriculum even from as early as the Pre-School?
Becker (1991) states, “Perhaps no other technology resource has had as great an impact on education as word processing.” How do we go forward? Please share your thoughts.
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