For Thursday, March 25, 1999 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 733 words

Race to keep up

I have a bubble to burst: It is the common belief that kids know all about computers and adults don't. That is wrong. It is a bubble. It needs popped. It fooled me, too.

Pop! There.

The truth is that kids don't know enough about computers, either. I'm basing this on personal observations, not on nationwide studies, but I'm definitely changing camps.

First, I must say it's not surprising that the average mortal can't keep up with technology. It's growing faster than we can learn it. Personal computers change inside and out with the seasons. Bewilderment is not a bad thing, however. Computers are complex because of their marvelous versatility. If all they did was add and print letters, we'd have them figured out by now.

Recall four weeks ago when I described a new lesson plan for my freshmen that required them to research an atrocity in history and present it to the class using Microsoft PowerPoint?

Well, we are still working on it. We've only just begun to present, and many students are still racing to the computer lab before school and at snacks and lunches to make last minute modifications to their files before show time.

We spent three weeks in the computer lab and 20 hours after school building these presentations and a week so far watching them at a rate of two or three a day. We will still have a few to view after the holidays.

Why has it taken five weeks? It's because we had to start at Ground Zero.

When this unit began, I told them it would be a learning experience for us all. I explained that this was the first year that Benicia High has had an open computer lab, and that I was eager to integrate it into my curriculum. They would learn more about computers and other atrocities, and I would learn how to modify the lesson for future years.

This little opening speech of mine proved to be a prelude of auspicious profundity.

I did not sense any pending disillusionment after my first question to the class: "Who has ever heard of a program called PowerPoint?" Approximately three kids in each of three classes raised their hands, about 10 out of 75. O.K. I'd expected that.

(For those of you unfamiliar with PowerPoint, it comes in the Microsoft Office Suite, and it's like a computerized slide projector. You can create colorful slides using text, pictures, movies, and sounds, and cast them on a big screen. It's an easy program to learn and a lot of fun. In fact, the kids took to it with enthusiasm and creativity.)

Now, just before the critique, I must say that the presentations have turned out absolutely, positively, remarkably wonderful, professional, fantastic, amazing. Watching them unfold has been one of the greatest experiences I've had as a teacher. I am in awe at the talent. We could take this show on the road.

The darkest hours came up in the lab when it was time to save files. I found out that about 65 kids did not know how to save a file or where to save it or what to call it. To complicate matters, I was asking them to save across a network to a server. As a result files got saved all over the lab.

Students were instructed to use their last name as the file name, but I got files called "presentation" and "powerpoint" which copied over other kids' files of the same name. It was even harder to show them how to drag their runaway files to the correct folder. Drag and drop was a new concept. Copying to a diskette was a new concept

To get to the bottom of this -- it appears this is the general scenario: Kids know how to use programs, but they don't know how to manage files. Most kids have a home computer, but it belongs to Mom and Dad and it's full of important things like bank accounts and work documents, and Mom and Dad don't want the kids experimenting and crashing the system. Thus, many kids are restricted to using the computer for writing essays, playing games, and surfing. They don't get to manipulate directories and drag files around.

My suggestion: kids should have their own computers.