Working with Gen Alpha: They weren’t kidding about being iPad kids.

Generation Alpha is defined as kids born after the iPad was released, or around and after 2010. My summer job has been working as an instructor at a technology camp for kids ages 7-17, so most of my students are iPad kids. They come in excited to play Minecraft and then realize they don’t know how to launch their favorite game when it’s not downloaded from the App Store.

I am given a curriculum that is built for kids to be able to understand. It is divided into short interactive segments however, it assumes that students are familiar with basic computer functions. I would expect a 10-year-old to know how to launch an application, create a folder on the desktop, and open a web browser’s bookmarked content, but this is not the case. I end up instructing on even the most simple tasks.

How to Create a Folder on the Desktop

1. First, minimize your windows so we can see the desktop.
2. No, the minus sign. Press the minus in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Ok, now right-click.
4. Try again.
5. Right-click.
6. Ok now hover over “New.”
7. Um, you clicked outside the menu, right-click again, and hover over “New.”
8. Ok, now click “New Folder.”
9. Great! Now, type a name that makes sense for the stuff we will store here this week.
10. No, don’t just type a single letter.

The Problem

Gen Alpha kids don’t know how to deal with computers because they don’t work on computers. You can see where there are multiple steps in the simple process of creating a folder that would never be required of a phone or tablet user. Hovering, minimizing, right-click: these are all motions computer users are fluent in, but my students are learning Monday mornings.

Even files are foreign to them because everything is stored in-app and named using autofill or autocorrect. When these kids are confronted with the daunting task of actually typing each letter of a word, they forget how to function. I try to help them find their files, and they are named either “New File,” “A,” or “ahiosdabouwe” (keyboard smashing).

I may be biased as a member of Gen Z, but I do think we learned how to be problem solvers. We had to be more independent while learning how to use technology. Millennials quickly adapted to the internet and social media and even learned how to code up HTML for their Myspace pages. Gen Z grew up on the computer playing Webkinz, Club Penguin, and downloading music from family computers onto our iPods. Now, Gen Alpha scrolls through endless YouTube and TikTok rabbit holes on their tablets.

The Hope

It’s shocking to see the gaps these kids have, but by the end of the week, they do learn— mostly. Some refuse to adopt best practices with file naming conventions. Others are awestruck by the “archaic” technology of flash drives to save their projects, as opposed to their default of cloud-based storage. Yet, they manage to struggle through the week and take their USB drives home to collect dust in a desk drawer. After all, iPads don’t have USB-A ports.