Teach More Tech, Fix More Social Problems
Reading time: 4 mins 40 sec
I was too young to remember the UT tower shootings in 1966. Columbine High School in 1999 was my first exposure to the insanity of a mass school shooting.
That unlooked-for tragedy set off what the New York Times called “a nerve-racking mission for tens of thousands of school leaders in the United States” to “avert similar attacks.” The mission continues today, as do mass shootings.
I’m not here to talk about gun control, though. I’m here to ask if this and other social issues we face can get better if children are better educated about technology.
Tech and social issues are inseparable
We’re fond of saying tech is everywhere. That means it’s in all the bad places as well as the good. The Warren Alpert Medical School’s Center for Digital Health spelled out the breadth of tech’s reach and potential:
“In today’s digital age, technology ... spreads influence and innovation while intersecting with almost every major issue faced by society.”
Think about that for a moment.
Hunger, poverty, racism, climate change, inadequate education, gun violence, LGBTQIA+ issues ... Technology is intricately woven into current issues, usually in more ways than one. Tech can connect people and spread information to make a bad situation worse or better—it depends on whose hands the tech and information are in at a given moment.
If education is meant to prepare young people for a responsible, self-fulfilling life, then education today is inseparable from both the tech and the social issues that, together, are waiting for every young adult on the planet.
This state of affairs begs a question: Why aren’t young people required to be as well-educated about technology (aka computer science) as they are in geography, geometry and world languages?
(Not to pick on languages, but if you’re 30+, I doubt you use your high school French nearly as much as you use your cell phone.)
Teach tech to reverse downward social trends
I started this post talking about guns, so let’s focus on the intersections binding together tech and this particular social issue.
The Alpert Center writer quoted above, Anisha Baktha, examined in July 2022 the roles technology plays in gun violence. We can point to tech and social media as contributors; yet, says Baktha, “Technology and social media [also] have the power to reverse these trends and develop productive solutions.” Paraphrasing some of her examples:
Tech can identify social-media patterns that can alert us to potential gun violence.
Tech already is being used to make sure people who don’t own a gun can’t fire it.
Technology such as gunfire detection can improve paramedic response time.
Tech (digital) health interventions can help young people with their mental health, reducing gun violence.
Then there are more obvious uses of tech for young people: Knowing how to identify someone online who isn’t who they pretend to be. Learning why and how cell phones and the Internet work to better understand economic relationships. Hearing why meeting individuals you’ve only talked to online is risky. Finding out how and why to protect your personal information. Identifying resources such as what to do if you think you might harm yourself (call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Seeing the hundreds of thousands of jobs that exist in the world, more than they could ever hear about in school. Feeling empathy toward people who live and thinks in ways they assume they can’t relate to.
Students won’t gain reputable information about any of the above by relying on friends, family or even Taylor Swift. They won’t get to develop a healthy skepticism from hearing more than one side of a story. And they won’t acquire the skills necessary to improve lives (theirs and ours) through technology unless they’re taught.
They need computer science courses.
Schools are spending on tech today (just not on education)
Some states currently require computer science (CS) courses for high school graduation. (Shout-out to my home state, Indiana!) Some require only that high schools offer CS as electives. Many schools that offer CS courses don’t effectively make their significance or potential known to students or parents.
I interviewed a young woman last week for Nextech, a nonprofit that’s creating equitable access to computer science curriculum (and CS-trained educators) for all K-12 Indiana students. Vivian, a high school junior, told me:
“I don’t know much about the computer science classes at my high school. I’ve never heard them talked about or seen students in them.”
She wouldn’t have been able to take them anyway, she said; they’re part of the math department, and the graduation math requirements don’t leave much room for taking CS.
The high school where I learned typing and shorthand now offers multiple CS courses and certifications. I’m proud of them but was disappointed when I found that rather than describe the myriad of career opportunities a tech education can provide, the school’s website uses the tired, old, narrow stereotypical pitch: “So you want to be a game developer when you get older!”
That’s a lost opportunity. CS is so much more than gaming. (I often hear from the students I interview from Nextech’s Catapult, ‘When I found out it’s not the stereotype of a guy in his parents’ basement writing computer code, I was in!’)
A medical and allied health magnet school offers “specialized class offerings,” such as biology II-EMT, chemistry-medical honors, and science projects/techniques. Yet, though tech plays a huge role in every aspect of medicine and healthcare today, ‘biology II-genetics and biotechnology’ is the only course that mentions tech.
Right now, schools are spending billions of dollars not teaching how to use tech for safety, but on technology gadgets that may or may not make students physically safer—all with the encouragement of trade-industry lobbyists. From the New York Times again:
“In 2021, schools and colleges in the United States spent an estimated $3.1 billion on security products and services. ... Security trade groups have lobbied for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state funding for school safety measures. ... But there is little hard evidence to suggest that safety technologies have prevented or mitigated catastrophic school events like mass shootings ... [and] the spread of surveillance technologies like gun detectors may make some students feel less safe.”
The spending trend will likely continue; K-12 Dive lists cyberthreats and school security among its top eight K-12 trends to watch in 2023.
Use tech to empower youth to improve their world
My point is this: Use tech to empower students to improve the issues that threaten them.
Technology gives us the power to develop tools to significantly improve the social issues plaguing us today. The skills and motivation needed must begin in the K-12 classroom.
Knowledge about a subject builds on itself. Suppose we start right now viewing computer science education as equally important as math or language, and spending some of the billions now used for physical safety on training teachers and expanding courses. If we do, we will graduate individuals with the experience and passion needed to address those plaguing problems in ways unimaginable to us today.
But if we don’t treat computer science as vital to education, neither will our students. And our individual futures may pay the highest price.
Nextech.org is a leader in CS teacher training and student education at virtually no cost to recipients. They are a client but don’t know I’m writing this; regardless, I won’t be taking payment for it. Visit Nextech.org.
Did I make myself clear or confuse you? Do you think kids should take CS in school? Please share in the comments! And please, keep the discussion about tech in education.