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<p>I made it a point to show our son (not sure about our daughter) a periodical index when I was with him at a research library. That’s one of the ways you did research in the old days.</p>
<p>Seems like everything “old days” wise had to do with research. I spent more time looking up books in the card catalog, checking indexes, finding resources than learning about whatever I was studying. Maybe that was good–I feel now it’s just the price of doing research whereas now students think that if they don’t find it on wikkipedia the information doesn’t exist.
We also followed computers all the way up–DOS, early internet, and everything in between. Adults don’t expect it to work the first time because it never has out of experience. We’ve already developed our “go-around” solutions to most of our problems. Sometimes that’s been calling on friends to print stuff because we already know our printer just isn’t happening.
I’m sure our parents who thought early TV was great laugh when we complain about cable also.
Simple rules for even passwords? Can’t remember them anymore, gotta write 'em down now. Techno-phobic? How many people could ever program their VHS (I know, we’ve moved on…) That little blinking light? Source of so many jokes for good reason.</p>
<p>In my view, the problem here is one of a failure of responsibility and ownership rather than knowledge. It’s really not a big deal if you don’t know you need to download Adobe to open a .pdf. It IS a big deal if your response to a file that won’t open is to give up, or ask your English professor for Adobe lessons, instead of looking for the information yourself. (According to the article, this was in the course materials as well as through Google.)</p>
<p>Students need more of an adult attitude toward resourcefulness, as opposed to courses in computer literacy. When you run into a software snag, the right answer is rarely to go directly to your professor/boss unless your course/job is about software. The right answer is to check whether the solution might be right in front of you. In other words, when you discover a hole in your computer literacy (or other underlying skill), you view it as YOUR problem, not someone else’s.</p>
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<p>My experience is that most people don’t do this leading me to question whether or not this is a problem with people or a problem with the technology.</p>
<p>My view is that this problem is a sign that digital technology is becoming more mature. These kids have never had to figure out how to download software to open an attachment because they’ve never had to. For them, technology just works. It’s like cars–when they first appeared, people who owned cars needed to know a lot about how they worked, and how to repair them. Now, most people don’t even change their own oil. Older people always grouse about stuff like this.</p>
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<p>Yes, if they are Mac users. 
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<p>Seriously, though, I guess I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions based on the observations and the exhibits A, B and C of a lone professor of English in Nova Scotia. I’m with Hanna on this: If there is a problem it’s a problem of resourcefulness.</p>
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Pretty much true.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that I can often solve my daughter’s PC problems because I have decades of experience with arcane work-arounds.</p>
<p>The prof who wrote the piece about digital illiteracy teaches in Nova Scotia where kids (refreshingly) grew up fishing and climbing trees. I think most urban teens know how to click on a PDF, not a huge cause for concern.</p>
<p>I don’t find it especially noteworthy that there are 3 college students who are unable to perform basic tasks with a computer. I’m not impressed.</p>
<p>It’s not the professor’s job to teach basic computing skills unless that’s the actual class he/she’s teaching. This is no different from some parents I’ve heard who felt that professors in humanities/social science courses should also be expected to teach basic writing skills on top of course material and is IMO, a mistake. </p>
<p>Here lies the road to LCD teaching which has plagued US K-12 public education and some universities…including one in my area whose once stellar academic reputation tanked after the late '60s due to policies which ended up promoting this. Something which fortunately wasn’t tolerated at my urban public HS…sometimes to the point of extreme bluntness by some teachers I’ve had. </p>
<p>At the very best, the Prof. should refer the student to campus resources more appropriate to handling that and I agree with Hanna that undergrads should be much more resourceful than some here seem to expect.</p>
<p>D2 and I had a conversation last week where she related that one of her profs was making the class go to the library to research and the students had to use actual books instead of online sources. She laughed because so many of the students thought that was horrible and a big waste of time. It made me smile. ;)</p>
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<p>That contrasts with my undergrad days when it was common for Profs to restrict or even bar the use of online sources because the web wasn’t very mature and most of the material online wasn’t sufficiently vetted by peer preview, publishers, etc. </p>
<p>One lit Prof I had even had a policy of an automatic F spelled out on the syllabus if the student used/cited any online source for a paper.</p>
<p>Contrast that to more recent years when I’ve actually seen undergrads cite wikipedia as a source on their papers. Doing so would have never been tolerated in my school days…whether undergrad or before because citing encyclopedia articles as sources with an extreme few exceptional allowable circumstances was absolutely verboten.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the reasoning anymore behind restricting online vs. text sources. I can publish lies in print just like I can publish lies on the internet. It might be easier to publish the lies online, but it’s also easier to verify claims online.</p>