A student emailed me today because, OMG, she had spent, like, 3 HOURS looking for a particular piece of information required for her last paper. (Due tonight, naturally.) And she has to work tonight, and can she turn the paper in tomorrow, etc etc. The usual last-minute drama.
(Not for nothing, this is the same student who has already emailed to say that she "needs" at least a B to get a particular internship she has applied for. I resisted the temptation to be snarky and respond that, well, then she "needed" to do ALL the work and "needed" to do at least B level work throughout.)
It took me less than 10 minutes online to find the information she needed. And this isn't the first request of this sort I've gotten - always with the same results on my part. Which made me wonder: is there any sort of systematic instruction for high school or college students in effective use of Internet resources? The older generation of the professoriate tends to sniff and harumph at the Internet and its information. Yet, there is tremendous value there, and even greater value in knowing how to evaluate the reliability of various sites. I wonder if our nostalgia for print and our snobbery about refereed work blinds us to what can usefully and practically be taught, in order to prepare our students for the Information Age.
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We are constantly bombarded from administrators and fellow academics about how this generation is fundamentally different from us... that they are "Technology Natives" and have always grown up around these new technologies and are fluent and proficient with them.
ReplyDeleteBullshit of the highest order.
These students are not Technology Natives... they are more like Technology Savages!
As a group, they are NOT well versed in technology any more than we were in the technology of our day.
They may be able to afford an iPod or fancy cell phone (or mommy buys it for them) and they eventually learn how to text (in class) and listen to (illegally downloaded) music... but they are no more technologically saavy than the average person.
The difference is in understanding. If you understand... "I put the key in the ignition and turn it and the car start, push the right pedal to go and the left one to stop" ... you do NOT UNDERSTAND AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY! You are simply a user of the lowest sort.
This is what our average student is - a technology user with an extremely limited range of abilities. Ask them to move one baby step beyond their 'comfort' zone and they are lost and helpless AND unwilling or able to even attempt to solve their problems.
My feeling is we hear all about these "Technology Natives" simply because the administrators are themselves technologically backwards and they see this difference between the younger generation and themselves as a threat that needs to be subdued by bestowing some special abilities or status onto those who can do what they can not.