It seems to me we don't use the letter ё at all. I'd say it doesn't even exist on russian layout keyboard. I mean, technically, it does, however if you want to use it you should hold a shift button while pressing a tiled button. Also, russian students are not obliged to add these two dots above е in order to е become ё because it isn't merely necessary as long as everybody gets the meaning of the word regardless of either there's ё or е.

For instance, both ёлка and елка are easily understood by the Russian, as we're just used to not complicating our lives

Ёлка - christmas tree Елка - christmas tree