People say this generation is computer-savvy, etc, but—
Do people realize I have to tell my students how to make Word generate and place a footnote number? (Yes, I have seen hand-typed footnote numbers carefully and manually placed at the bottom of the page by hitting enter several times.) That they’ve never heard of page breaks? That I have to instruct them how to Save as RTF out of WordPerfect? That sometimes they seem to not know what an attachment is? That if a PDF doesn’t open in the browser, they have no clue that it might have downloaded to their desktop? That a student once asked if I could save a PDF as RTF to send it to him? Let’s not even think about the time I suggested students chart readings as they went along, and offered them a table as an example. Won’t do that again.
In one class, a student said “I don’t know how to print a title page without a page number on it.” And another student said, “well, I print the title page first, and then I add the page numbers and reprint the rest of the essay”. And he was a bit excited to share this information, clearly having solved a problem and wanting to help others with his solution. I have actually resorted to saying “I don’t care if your paper starts on page 3” when I asked them to submit a research paper in a single file prefaced by a title page and an abstract page.
These are largely middle-class students, by the way, many of them have laptops, and nearly all had computers growing up.
see also: The Salt Box on online assignments.
Prone to Laughter 
25 January 2008 at 4:24 am
This is really interesting — I’d never sat down and thought about this, but you’re right. In a way. If you think of a computer like any other tool — say, a hammer — then our students know how to use it much more than I did as an undergrad a decade and a half ago. But you can use a hammer to build a house, or just hang a picture nail. Or even to just whack a hole in your wall.
25 January 2008 at 3:14 pm
The less-ranty way I think of it, is that when you walk by a house being built every day on your way to the bus, you have a much better understanding of how a house works on the inside and fits together. Our students were presented with computers as a full-fledged thing, and so have no notion how it all fits together, and no concept that they can change things to suit themselves.
I remember when PDFs didn’t open in a browser windows, so I know the PDF has to download somewhere to open at all. I know what a pain it is to do footnotes by hand on a typewriter, so even faced with a totally unfamiliar program, I’d know that command is there somewhere, because not doing footnotes by hand is pretty much the entire point of using a computer (and other big hassle items). Etc. My issue with students is less that they don’t know how to do things and more about the mindset they bring to the computer. They are lacking the “there has got to be a better way and I am going to find it, damnit!” attitude that I have.
I think they don’t know how to use computers more than you did. Let’s set aside the question of innards or system issues, which only techie people know. I bet you knew 50% of what computers could do 15 years ago, and I bet they don’t know 10% of what computers can do now. Even if/because that 10% encompasses many more things that the old 50% did.
25 January 2008 at 9:39 pm
I read your reply, and have been thinking this through, and I think I’m ready to modify my position a bit:
First, to contextualize: I first began using computers semi-regularly in the days of when e-mail was Pine, Mosaic or Gopher was the web browser, and DOS was still the most widely-used OS.
The personal computer was presented to us in its (relative) infancy, when it couldn’t do a heck of a lot. I remember even thinking, “What do I need a computer for, when all I’d ever use it for is a fancy typewriter?” There were only a limited number of applications that the lay user would use it for, and almost all of these were in an academic/professional context. Sure, you could e-mail someone, but your 2400bps modem was not going to allow you to do much else on-line. So, for me, the computer was a work tool, and anything else was extra.
Our students, on the other hand, having been presented with a broader spectrum of applications (as well as faster connection speeds) have grown up thinking of the computer first and foremost as a social space. The idea that you can actually do work-related things seems an afterthought.
So, my students can surely run rings around me on the social networking sites, can manipulate avatars in Second Life, because that’s what they *want* to do, and that’s what (in their opinion) the computer is *for.* It’s a matter of how one set of priorities has kept them incurious of a wider range of applications.
(At least, that’s my position for the next half hour or so.)
26 January 2008 at 6:55 pm
I think you can keep that position—it’s about priorities—for a while. 🙂