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HIG, R U n2 CP? : The Technology Is the Easy Part

6/17/2003

By Terry Calhoun

While many of us are a generation or two removed from computers being second-nature, we have adapted to the new technology. Still, students in college now have never known a life without computers. These kids have grown up with computers. They have used the Internet for a big portion of their lifetimes. Software is absorbed. Programming is another language they acquire. Communicating electronically is as natural as talking on the telephone.

What do students coming into college now expect of academia? Aside from a desire to have the technology there to support our teaching, and their learning, they take for granted electronic communication. Do we satisfy their expectations?

My 12-year-old d'es not do a lot of net surfing. Still, he knows the common emoticons, knows chat language, and knows how to e-mail with his eyes closed. Students in my online general studies biology course must be LOL at me for being a NEWBIE. My real concern is whether this generation e-gap affects my ability to convey concepts and facilitate learning, particularly in heavily Web-supported or completely online courses. I know in my Web-based biology course students seem sometimes to be poor at reading simple directions. I am exasperated to the point of yelling at the computer terminal because another student has made another bonehead mistake. I am wondering what the emoticon for frustrated teacher is.

I am also wondering whether the problems my students have is not that they don't know how to read, but that I am writing in old-fashioned paper text and they are on the Internet expecting electronic text. My guess is that this plays some part in the problem. While I have become much more adept at writing, editing, and reading on a computer, sometimes nothing beats a good hardcopy. Certainly, writing a manuscript is different on a computer. Copy & paste. Drag & drop. Thesaurus, spell-check, and grammar check (aka green and red squiggly lines). We know our students rely on these as well—sometimes too much—as is evidenced by spell-checked, but not proofed, papers and e-mails.

How will I create and deliver online content effectively to my students if we are on different e-wavelengths? Though I am tempted to make acronyms out of my lessons, I think that at least an awareness and compassion for the ever-changing nature of language, be it in stone, on paper, or on the Internet should give me some capability of communicating with my students, even if they are speaking EEE (Electronically Enhanced English—the great thing about chat language is, near as I can tell, you can make it up yourself!). OBTW, JMO (oh by the way, just my opinion).

***

David's got it right. We have to understand our customers and give them what they want—at least in terms of learning styles and communication. If our students don't understand the way we write simple instructions, then we have to find new ways to give instructions. If they don't want to go to the library, instead of DTL (decrying their laziness), we need to GTLOFT (get that library online for them).

And, given that they TUFG (take us for granted), we'd better make the technology work seamlessly, or they'll CTM&D (complain to Mom & Dad).

David Starrett, Ph.D. (starrett@cstl.semo.edu), is director of the Center for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning at Southeast Missouri State University.
http://biology.semo.edu/starrett/starrhpg.html
http://cstl.semo.edu/cstl/

About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.

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