But they can't add a page number header to a document. Or figure out what 12 point font means. Or - GOOD GRIEF - double space an essay.
I get email (from their school account) from them about not coming to class because their sister's boyfriend had a DUI arrest in Cincinnati, but when they need that SAME INFO to log in to our lab computers in order to complete an assignment, they've forgotten the password, or the "machines don't work."
Selective, much?
I am begged by our adminiwonks to include technology of all kinds. I'm urged to reach out to them in their own digital language.
But woe be to me if I ask them to attach a document to an email. It's as if I've asked them to build HAL 9000 out of string, dustbunnies, and balloons.
That's because they only know the flashy "surface" applications, that and they are lazy bums.
ReplyDeleteStrelnikov is right. Psychotic, but absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteModern students do always seem to have the latest gadgets, which they use to distract themselves in ever-new ways during class. And yet, anytime you require them to use any of that technology as part of a class, they immediately turn into all-thumbs Luddites. Professors therefore need to add "technical consultant and troubleshooter" to the already too-long list of sub-jobs that are necessary but not sufficient to do the job of being a professor, some of the other entries being teacher, researcher, manager, fund-raiser, etc.
Something to notice about the gadgets that our students have is that they all have carefully designed user interfaces, making them operable by Bubbles the Chimp. Any technology that requires care and thought to use, such as computer programming, immediately makes modern students lost.
It is absurd that almost none of my physics graduates can program a computer in any language, even though they were required to take a course in it. To be fair, the introductory programming course is taught by the Department of Computer Science, famous for being socially maladjusted, and they do little to no actual programming: it’s really a course on algorithm design. Still, our students do pass this course: I have no idea how. Also, everything I know about computers I picked up on the street, because I thought it was cool when I was a teenager, or useful later on. I gained proficiency in programming Fortran (yes, I know I’m old), C/C++, html, Java, Python, and several other extinct computer languages (Pascal, APL, or PL/I, anyone?), entirely on my own. Expecting modern students to pick up anything on their own does not fit with the hyperscheduled, helicopter-parented upbringing they’ve had inflicted on them. I can just hear the whine, “You didn’t cover this in class!!”
This is why I, a user of Hubble Space Telescope, take a decidedly low-tech approach when it comes to classes. For example, all class work must be turned in as paper copies in class, during the first five minutes of class. I no longer say “hard copies,” because too many students don’t know what that means. I never accept work sent by e-mail, or even slipped under my door or delivered to my mailbox. I don’t tell them I won’t accept homework by fax anymore, because no student has tried to send me a fax in many years. I tell my students that if there’s more than one way to turn in assignments, in large classes it’s an invitation for things to get lost, which is true.
It wasn't always this way. Fourteen years ago, when I was a shiny, new, enthusiastic, youngish, Accursed Visiting Assistant Professor, I was told by the so-called education experts at my university, who of course had never used the technology, that it was desirable to use the still-newish World Wide Web in my classes. I did, and immediately got an astonishingly angry illiterate e-mail diatribe, even for an engineering senior, about how he “paid good money” for the textbook and how he was “inconvenienced” to go out of his way to get to a PC connected to the Internet. Another engineering undergraduate tried the excuse that he didn’t do his homework because his browser “wasn’t Java enabled.” This quickly made me rethink technology in education.
The notion that Generation iY is in any way proficient with technology is a myth, right up there with the claim that they are "smart" or "street smart" in any way whatsoever. God help and keep the future of the United States of America.
"Strelnikov is right. Psychotic, but absolutely right."
DeleteI can't help thinking that "Psychotic but right" might make a good CM motto. We're all a little off our meds, but you have to admit we have a point.
But on the original topic, no dispute here. Saying the Gen Y is tech savvy because they use twitter is like me claiming to be an electrical engineer because I can turn on the TV.
I trust you know the line is stolen from "Animal House"?
DeleteI'm afraid I didn't, but now that you mention it, it does sound familiar
DeleteThe computer is the new dog (as in "the dog ate my homework.")
ReplyDeleteMy estimation of my students' computer abilities was already pretty low--after years of dealing with their pain and suffering when forced to use a word processor, I decided that "tech generation" was a misnomer and all they really knew how to use was IE/Firefox/Chrome. Then this semester our online teaching system thingy changed some stuff, requiring a browser cookie clear-out in order to work, and I discovered that they don't even know how to use their browsers. Most of them had never heard of "cookies" and had no idea how they worked or how to clear them. And don't even get me started on "I couldn't get the file to download." I bet they're ignoring the little "popup blocked" doohickey and just deciding that since it didn't come up immediately, they can't open it and hence can't do the homework.
ReplyDelete/rant
I once sent an email with a assignment/document for class a couple days later. Upon arriving that day I asked if they had it. Very few of them did. Most insisted they "never got it." Since a couple did, I knew the email had been sent. They then claimed they hadn't checked their email in several days because they were too busy. I was incredulous. Really? I thought this was the wired generation. Then it hit me. They hadn't checked their email that ended in .edu.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was an undergrad, email was fairly new and my peers thought it was a luxury and claimed they were "too busy" to check it, despite the fact that I would sent important announcements for the student organization well in advance so they could get it. I could somewhat understand that then, as email was newfangled, but now? I have a line in my syllabi that says "check email every day as I frequently send announcements that way."
Our dean here does not believe computer classes are important and they should be "cut." When I said that computers are more important now than ever, he said "computer literacy" is important, and they are literate.
Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter does not make one literate. Few know how to use computers for professional purposes.
My solution? Set up a Facebook "Gauss from Grinell" and make all my students friend me and then post assignments to my wall as pithy comments.
"My solution? Set up a Facebook "Gauss from Grinell" and make all my students friend me and then post assignments to my wall as pithy comments."
DeleteOne of my colleagues has done just that. I don't know how well it's working yet, but it seems like even more of a time suck than sending out a mass email.
FFFF
ReplyDelete"I gained proficiency in programming Fortran (yes, I know I’m old) . . . ."
I'm so old I took a college course in programming Fortran. (I made a C in 1973, so the question of proficiency is up for grabs).
That Fortran remains the language of supercomputers partly explains why there still is no HAL 9000, or any other computer that can pass the Turing test.
DeleteMonday is the 50th anniversary of John Glenn orbiting Earth. Something is screwed up when we are nostalgic for the future.
DeleteSome of my favorites: students who do not know how to
ReplyDelete-make subscripts or superscripts in their word processed documents;
-insert Greek letters or other mathematical symbols in their documents;
-make Excel graphs readable (i.e, change the defaults)
Of course, I have a colleague who handles his grades by hand-writing exam and quiz scores on a print-out of the class roll, and then hand-calculating their final grades. He also told me proudly that he had "figured out how to use Microsoft Word."
Forget the Greek letters. I had a student email me that he had searched all over his keyboard for the WWII symbol so he could type "WWII" instead of WW2.
DeleteThere is actually a 'Ⅱ' symbol in unicode, though it isn't intended for standard use.
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_numerals#Roman_numerals
Doesn't excuse him, but it's a mildly interesting aside.
My students' printers break with stunning regularity--always when there's a assignment that they have to hand in. Or they run out of ink and paper, "so I can just email it to you, right?" When I point out that there are printers all over campus--along with supply stores at which to buy paper and ink cartridges--they just stare at me. "But my printer broke." Or "I work and don't have time to print at the library."
ReplyDeletePrinter malfunctions auto translate in my brain as "I was frantically typing until I was late for class, and then the printer took 30 seconds to warm up so I left."
DeleteMy favorite: students who punch numbers into their calculator with the same finger they pick their nose with. The keys get all messy!
ReplyDelete@Froderick, eeeewwwwwh!
ReplyDeleteThey are not "Digital Natives", folks. They can click around on a screen, or poke and swipe on their little flat bricks with dirty fingers, but since they can't read, they have no idea how to navigate. Since they can't think, they can't formulate a search strategy. Since they can't write, they don't realize that someone has to read what was written.
So we will surely be asked soon to offer Remedial Use of Electronics (RUE 101) courses.
OMG Suzy, you said "formulate"!
DeleteDuring my class from hell, composed of 80 ed majors (DANGER, Will Robinson! Ed majors!), one of them upbraided me for using the word "formulate." This student told me I was "intimidating." When I suggested to look it up in a dictionary, the ed major's reply was that her parents had it.
Again, it comes down to the fact that if it's for class, they can't do it. If it's for a friend or for their entertainment, suddenly they have mastered the skill.
ReplyDeleteYou have nailed it, sir or madam.
Delete