"2023-03-08"

Last updated May 6, 2024

• Dr. Amelia Acker: nearly all of my students now believe that “the internet” is all/only social media networks and consuming content. How do you gently introduce the idea that a network of networks is more than just…commercial entertainment experiences via mobile devices?
• File not found
  • the concept of file folders and directories, essential to previous generations’ understanding of computers, is gibberish to many modern students
  • educators had to ask for help explaining the concept of a file to their students
  • old mental model: directory structure, the hierarchical system of folders that modern computer operating systems use to arrange files
    • connotes physical placement — the idea that a file stored on a computer is located somewhere on that computer, in a specific and discrete location.
  • new mental model: bucket
    • “The most intuitive thing would be the laundry basket where you have everything kind of together, and you’re just kind of pulling out what you need at any given time"
  • Cause: a fundamental shift in how we access files (shift in mental models)
    • many young students spent their high school years storing documents in the likes of OneDrive and Dropbox rather than in physical spaces
    • could also have to do with the other software they’re accustomed to — dominant smartphone apps like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube all involve pulling content from a vast online sea rather than locating it within a nested hierarchy
    • in an age where every conceivable user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories for the tasks they do
    • young students don’t remember a time without phones or computers
  • Why is it a problem? Directory structures remain vital to know in STEM fields
    • Astronomers, for example, may work with hundreds of thousands of files in the same format — which can be unwieldy to scale to a searchable system
    • The primary issue is that the code researchers write, run at the command line, needs to be told exactly how to access the files it’s working with — it can’t search for those files on its own. Some programming languages have search functions, but they’re difficult to implement and not commonly used. It’s in the programming lessons where STEM professors, across fields, are encountering problems.
    • Guarín-Zapata was taught computer basics in high school — how to save, how to use file folders, how to navigate the terminal — which is knowledge many of his current students are coming in without. The high school students Garland works with largely haven’t encountered directory structure unless they’ve taken upper-level STEM courses. Vogel recalls saving to file folders in a first-grade computer class, but says she was never directly taught what folders were
    • But the issue is likely not that modern students are learning fewer digital skills, but rather that they’re learning different ones.
    • STEM educators are increasingly taking on dual roles: those of instructors not only in their field of expertise but in computer fundamentals as well.
  • Solutions
    • a full two-hour lecture to explain directory structure. He likens finding files to giving driving directions. He shows maps of directory trees and asks his students to pretend they’re guiding others to a highlighted point.
    • Analogies
      • physical tree branches and leaves
      • utensils in drawers
      • books and shelves in a library
• ‘Scanners are complicated’: why Gen Z faces workplace ‘tech shame’
  • Gen Z are digital natives, but uncomfortable with office devices
  • How would they know how to scan something if they’ve never been taught how to do it?
  • Their formative tech years were spent using software that exists to be user-friendly. But desktop computing is decidedly less intuitive. Things like files, folders, scanning, printing, and using external hardware are hallmarks of office life.
  • “tech shame”: the overwhelm young people feel using basic office tools
  • LaSalle Agency: almost half of the class of 2022 felt “underprepared” when it came to the technical skills relevant for entering the workforce.
    • What they know comes from the apps they use on their own time, not the tech supplies at Office Depot.
  • For Simon, it’s another problem to blame on the brain-melting power of social media.
    • His hunch: apps like Instagram and TikTok are so easy to use that younger people expect everything else to be a breeze, too. When it’s not, they’re more likely to give up.
    • “It takes five seconds to learn how to use TikTok,” he said. “You don’t need an instruction book, like you would with a printer. Content is so easy to access now that when you throw someone a simple curveball, they’ll swing and they miss, and that’s why Gen Z can’t schedule a meeting.”
  • When it comes to accomplishing simple tasks, sometimes Gen Z has to get a bit creative – or downright evasive.
  • Sometimes, bosses bring in experts to help with the divide. Jason Dorsey is the co-founder of the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research firm based in Austin. Managers tap him to lead workshops that unite employees of all ages around their mutual computer struggles. In one exercise, he puts attendees in a circle, where they share the different technological advancements they remember living through.
    • “It’s extremely humanizing,” Dorsey said. “You’ll have someone who remembers the first color TV, another person who remembers the first answering machines, and a kid who can do their job on a smartphone. It helps us recognize that diversity of these experiences is a strength.”
• Why gen Z’s lack of IT literacy is a serious business risk
  • Dr Elinor Carmi, lecturer in data politics and social justice at City, University of London. She observes that, while people are indeed becoming acquainted with online tech at a younger and younger age, the range of applications they’re using is actually quite limited.
  • “When I ask my students what they mean when they say they’re online, 99% say they mean they’re using TikTok,” Carmi reports. “If you’re experiencing only one thing, that limits how you understand different types of options and what’s available to you.”

• Constructivism (like Constructionism?)
  • creating meaning from experience
  • Learners are active in constructing their own knowledge.
  • Social interactions are important in this knowledge construction process (Bruning, Schraw, & Norby, 2011).
  • Possible teaching strategies
    • interview different generation, to discuss the tech advancements they lived through <- what young students are puzzled by
• Working memory
  • elaborative rehearsal (making connections with knowledge from long-term memory): also helps move new information to long-term memory
    • trying to understand foreign file systems by relating it to objects you already know how to use?
  • Visuospatial sketchpad: mental image. analogies help with this
• Long-term memory
  • Semantic: the concept of a file
  • Episodic:
  • Procedural: how to find a file in a computer

600 to 750 words

• Problem
  • Description of the issue
  • Explain why it’s a problem
• Proposed Solution
  • Describe the process
• Theoretical Underpinnings

1. Problem: Young generations (Gen Z and onwards) are lacking in computer literacy
   1. People don’t understand directory structures
   2. They also don’t understand office software and devices
      1. “Tech shame”
   3. Causes
      1. Growing up in an era of mobile + cloud computing
      2. used to dominant smartphone social media apps
      3. every app they use has a search function
      4. nothing is explicitly taught anymore
   4. Effects (why it’s bad)
      1. STEM fields still need directory structures
      2. other subjects too, it’s necessary (e.g. design, web dev, audio editing)
      3. Feel too ashamed to ask for help at the office?
2. Proposed Solution:
   1. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - Arthur C. Clarke
      1. Everything has been abstracted away
      2. We need to show that tech isn’t a black box; show the inner workings of it
   2. How? Make it visual
      1. Comparing computer file directories to books and shelves in a library
         1. visually imagine yourself going to the shelf by looking for the code, and taking out the book you need
      2. Labelling devices so that they remember the functions of the buttons
         1. instructions may be too hassle to read?
3. Theoretical Underpinnings:
   1. Multi-Store Memory Model
      1. Sensory register: labels help with reinforcement
      2. Working memory: relation to prior knowledge
      3. Long-term memory: helps update our mental model of tech
   2. Constructivism

Despite being considered digital natives, Gen Z are quite technologically illiterate. Many things that were considered essential to previous generations’ understanding of computers are now incomprehensible to today’s youth. For example, file folders and directories are now alien concepts; many modern students don’t know how to find their files or properly save them. When they enter the workforce, a lot of Gen Z also experience “tech shame”: a sense of overwhelm when using basic office tools. Older devices such as scanners and printers seem like black boxes to them, yet they are still expected to know how to use these devices.

How did they end up this way? The root of this problem could be technological progression. Previous generations were alive when the Information Age came about, and had to learn how to deal with the growing pains of early computers and the Internet. But Gen Z grew up using user-friendly software, as seen in the prevalence of smartphones and the frictionless experience of apps like social media (i.e. effortless search, short tutorials). As a result, there has been a generational shift in mental models. Before, people saw computer systems like filing cabinets, wherein every file had its own specific and discrete location. Now, people see computer systems like laundry baskets; the laundry is all in one place, and a robot (a.k.a. the search engine) will get you whatever laundry you need on demand. Aside from this, basic computer skills (e.g. navigating file systems, interacting with web browsers, keyboard shortcuts) are not explicitly taught anymore, leaving Gen Z feeling underprepared for their careers.

This lack of understanding cripples Gen Z in the workplace. It not only gives them avoidable problems like slowing down office laptops, but also prevents them from seeking for help due to a sense of shame. Aside from this, Gen Z are also blocked from creating meaningful work. Skills like programming, web development, graphic design, etc. all require know-how on file management. Not knowing how to find and save files can act as a blocker in the entire creative process, from fetching data to sending work to clients.

To overcome this technological illiteracy, Gen Z need explicit guidance. One way of doing this is through providing visual aids for older devices. While these devices already come with instruction manuals, people struggle to read these due to a reduced attention span – the average duration has gone from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. Adding on to this, our sensory registers can only retain information for less than a second, which could lead people to easily forget instructions after reading them. Visual aids like labels and diagrams draw attention, reinforcing the knowledge of how these devices function. These also act similarly to the tooltips often used in apps, replicating the user-friendliness found in digital environments.

Another way of providing guidance is through analogies and walkthroughs. To help students understand files and directories, educators compare them to physical objects and places they encounter in their everyday lives: leaves and branches of a tree, utensils in a drawer, books and shelves in a library. To further develop the connection, students are asked to imagine themselves physically locating a file; for instance, using the library as an analogy, students visualize themselves looking for a book using a call number as reference. These tactics’ visual nature help cement abstract computer concepts into their working memory’s visuospatial sketchpad. They also exemplify elaborative rehearsal, a memory technique that involves making connections with knowledge from long-term memory. Since interactions with things in the physical world are already stored in people’s long-term memory, associating computer systems with these things will help people remember how to use these systems. Eventually, this knowledge gets stored in the long-term memory; people not only understand what a file system is (semantic memory), but also how to navigate it (procedural memory). Thus, their mental model of computers gets updated.

In summary, the technological illiteracy of Gen Zers can be really seen as a shift in mental models due to the times. Even if Gen Zers and older generations are exposed to the same old technologies, the latter is more comfortable with using them due to having increased prior knowledge. But this knowledge gap is not set in stone. With explicit guidance, Gen Z can better encode their interactions with computer systems, turning incomprehensible black boxes into tools that they can understand.

https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/