Do elementary schools still have computer lab classes?
I think (but am not entirely sure) that in the 80s-00s computer lab classes were for high school students, and maybe they had computer classes in middle or elementary school? I am too young to know...and my parents went to school in Brazil in the 80s and 90s in a poor area so I'm not entirely sure if I could gauge an accurate idea of computer labs in America from their answers. For me, my old school had computer lab classes all throughout K-8, and probably throughout high-school?
But moving to a school that was less funded, there was no Spanish class, and the "computer" class we had was in our STEM period which really threw me off...we would do scratch, basic coding. In my old school, we learned how to touch type in the 2nd grade - which was taught by our primary teacher (who taught us English, history, math, health, etc.), and then we had a separate computer lab class where we learned how to optimize our use in google docs (like we learned tips and how to navigate through it). It was kind of like the Intros to Computers and Computing course I took in my Winter semester, except it was teaching 9–10-year-olds how to use google docs, sheets, and slides instead of teaching high-school/college students how to use Microsoft word and PowerPoint.
The other aspect of our computer class was coding. We used code.org to learn how to code and stuff. And the rest of that class was learning about how technological advancements allowed for a greater amount of accessibility, for example we learned how audible made reading accessible for blind people, and people with other kinds of disabilities. It was super cool, and I wish I still had a class like that. Unfortunately, because of COVID, I'm not sure if it was my middle school's lack of funding or because schools had assumed kids had become more technologically literate due to the lockdown, but these computer lab classes had seemed to completely cease from existence in the rest of my learning.
If you're still in high school, do you still have a computer lab class? I'm also interested to know how computer lab class was for anyone who had that class in the 2010s. If you were in elementary, middle, or high school anytime between the 90s or 2000s I would also be super interested in knowing how computer lab classes were like then.
Hopefully after reading this, you guys are also as interested as I am in the evolution of computer lab classes in schools throughout the decades, and perhaps the phasing out of these classes as the world becomes more technologically advanced? Let me know what you think!
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