Kindergarteners and computers

Last year when our school purchased computers for every student, I stepped out of the classroom to work full time in technology integration. This year, with the program established, I am meeting with each of our 15 classes once a week for about 25 minutes, providing some sort of technology instruction.

As I discussed this new role with my boss last spring, I expressed one concern: KINDERGARTEN! You see, I’d had just enough interaction with kindergarten students last year to learn two things: kindergarteners are helpless, and kindergarteners are incredibly needy. Working with a gaggle of kindergarteners for as little as 25 minutes is enough to drain my last ounce of energy. (Kindergarten teachers are grossly undercompensated!)

So a couple of weeks ago, operating on the premise that students can’t work on computers until they’ve logged on to the school network, I set out to do so with KINDERGARTENERS!

I was wise enough to know not to let kindergarteners remove their own computers from the storage cart, so I began to pull them out, one by one. Not knowing any of their names yet, I began calling out their user names labeled on the top of each device (usually first initial and last name): “Jones,” “Jones,” “AJones.” “Who is AJones?” A few teacher-pleasers raised tentative hands, none connected to AJones, which brought me face-to-face with …

Revelation #1: Kindergarteners do now know their last names.

Apparently this bit of knowledge has not been a necessary part of their skill set for the first five years of life.

Eventually moving past the distribution debacle, we opened the lids of the devices (no problem here, thankfully), found the power button and held it until it turned blue (a few problems), then pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL. Now I had been particularly prescient here. Knowing that they would be unlikely to find these keys the first time, we had actually practiced this on highlighted paper keyboards a week earlier. This step was more difficult than the first two, but we muddled through.

As students now blankly stared at two empty boxes, one for user name and one for password, I was soon struck by …

Revelation #2: Kindergarteners do not know the alphabet.

Now, mind you, each student’s user name and password are on a label, in all caps (just like the keys!) right above the keyboard. One simply needs to find the cryptic shape that looks just like the one on the label and press that key!

Well, most of us did get logged in that day, with considerable adult intervention. (My boss graciously has made sure I have assistance when KINDERGARTEN comes!)

This week, we logged in each student ahead of time, right up to the exact web page I wanted them to use, before they came for Tech Time. All they had to do was click on enticing pictures, nothing else!

My technology assistant thinks we might be up to trying student logons again along about Christmas. I think she’s awfully optimistic.