Today’s generation of students are extremely well-versed in the world of technology and the perks that it offers in efficiency, entertainment, and especially, education. The Technology Education for the 21st Century (Tech Ed) semester-long course is a graduation requirement at CHS in which students learn how to use Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and collaborate with others on Google Docs. Students will also acquire the skills of searching, locating, organizing, and synthesizing information from the internet while analyzing and evaluating the bias and accuracy of digital resources in a legal, ethical, safe, and responsible manner. Although technology is very useful in this day and age, most students already know everything the class aims to teach. Many classes at CHS also have integrated iPads in their curriculum and make use of the countless applications on the App Store for education, which has made students even more adept at using technology. Due to these reasons, Tech Ed should be updated to teach students certain skills and assets they do not already have, rather than the now mundane tasks of opening a Word document.

Most students in America are already quite skillful in using technology on many different platforms for homework assignments, essays, projects, and presentations. In addition, a study by the Pew Research Center found that 78% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 have cell phones, and 75% have access to the internet, using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is absurd that the Tech Ed course is still believed to be mandatory when there is such a large percentage of teenagers who are already adept at using electronic devices. Students already know how to use programs such as Google Drive, and they have been Googling things for years.

The current Tech Ed course should reform its irrelevant and unproductive curriculum in order to create a more applicable and pertinent graduation requirement. Its standards should be raised to teach more difficult skills and programs that are less familiar to students such as analytics, creating websites, and graphic design. As a result, students may learn new things that they have never seen before and will further improve their use of technology rather than having to be tested on information that they already know. These skills could help for potential job opportunities such as consulting, software development, and information technology (IT) specialist. Otherwise, continuing to require students in CUSD to take this class will only serve as a hindrance and a superfluous waste of time. Updating the National Educational Technology Standards, the standards that the Tech Ed course is required to teach, such as fluency in research and ethical digital behavior, will eliminate this problem and create a course more worthwhile to take in order to graduate.

High school students in Claremont have a long list of graduation requirements and credits that they must complete in order to receive their diplomas. Every single requirement on the list should have some significance in benefiting students in their chances of success in their lives and careers. The Tech Ed course should be revised to have an updated curriculum that will build off of students’ skills with more advanced standards or be completely removed as a graduation requirement. It is unnecessary to keep having students of today’s generation take the class, as it may be considered to be a misuse of one’s time and effort that may be used in areas in which the students are not already well-versed.