Mismatched Chapter 15: Technology Gap

Description:
In 2018, a curriculum director proudly showed me her district's "technology initiative": teaching students to handwrite bibliographies on index cards, MLA format. Citation management software had existed for twenty years.
When I suggested EndNote, Zotero, or even Word's built-in tools, she blinked at me like I'd proposed they learn semaphore flags. "But this is how research is done," she said—with the confidence of someone who hadn't touched actual research tools since dial-up.
She wasn't an outlier. District after district, students learn "technology" through PowerPoints with spinning text and chirping sounds. Nobody teaches Excel formulas, data analysis, or database skills—the digital competencies employers actually want.
The blind are leading the blind, except the adult blind insist they have perfect vision. We aren't closing the technology gap. We're cementing it one glitter transition at a time.