Instructure’s Post

Tech-savvy members of #GenZ can do anything on a computer—except type. Educators sometimes assume Gen Z digital natives already know how to type because they’re so familiar with #tech. After all, nearly half of teens say they are online “almost constantly,” according to a survey from Pew Research Center. But while today’s students have greater access to laptops, tablets and smartphones, that access doesn’t automatically translate into typing skills. Over the past 25 years, the number of U.S. high schools teaching typing has fallen drastically. While about 44% of students who graduated high school in 2000 took a keyboarding course, by 2019 that figure had plummeted to 2.5%, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Students are submitting a growing portion of their assignments from mobile devices. Between March and May, 39% of the assignments that students submitted through the online platform Canvas LMS were uploaded from mobile devices. Schools use Canvas to distribute content to students and as a place for students to turn in coursework. Teachers, meanwhile, completed more than 90% of their work on Canvas on a computer. “We have two generations experiencing the teaching, and the learning, in a very different way,” Melissa Loble, chief academic officer at Instructure, the company that makes Canvas. “That’s alarming to me.” 🔗 Read more about how some school districts are addressing this issue: https://lnkd.in/evKKRtnA