One of the earliest memories I have of using technology in the classroom was from my elementary school computer lab, where we were being explicitly taught how to save onto a floppy disk. I remember being given very specific instructions, of what to click and drag, where to place folders, etc. The process itself was lengthy and took a number of attempts (and a few fails or lost files) to get the hang of it. It was a necessary evil when it came to using technology, but if you followed the steps properly, you could save yourself a ton of time.
Now as an educator, I have found myself going back to this simple memory of the floppy disk. I was explicitly taught the steps of how to make the most of this piece of hardware. With students having technology at their fingertips nowadays, we take for granted their knowledge and comfort with tech, and we assume they know how to get the most out of it. I think that as we move forward in teaching students to use technology for their inquiry into the world, we mustn’t forget to explicitly teach them the critical steps of the how, when and why of technology so they become technology literate and not technology inundated.