Meet the Computer Generation

Published by

Clarissa

September 15, 2011

My Freshman students were born in 1993. The Internet was already around. Personal computers had been around for a while.

Yesterday, I was explaining the essay format to them.

“The essays should be in Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, one-inch margins on all sides,” I announce and notice the stunned faces of my students.

“Did anybody understand what I just said?” I ask.

“Noooo,” is the answer.

I open a Word document and show them. I also insert page numbers.

“OMG!” a student exclaims. “This is SO cool! I always write page numbers by hand but this is so much more convenient!”

Well, at least I don’t have to try hard to impress them. You know how professors sometimes fear their younger students will not find them sufficiently savvy about technology? I don’t think there is any danger of that.

Maybe the next time I’ll introduce them to the miracle of a light-bulb.

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6 responses to “Meet the Computer Generation”

KK

September 15, 2011

So, this is a generation who thinks computers are only for playing games, Facebook-ing and Tweeting?

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1. Helena Suess
  
  September 15, 2011
  
  And porn. Don’t forget the porn.
  
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Pen

September 15, 2011

I’ve had to explain to people how you really can type in other languages using Word. There are always people who aren’t very tech-savvy; some of them, I was surprised to learn, are seniors who decided to put off the language requirement until this year.

But if they’re seniors in a language 102 class, that means they should have gone through a language 101 class. Which means they should already have been introduced to this novel form of typing….

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1. Shakti
  
  September 15, 2011
  
  Does that involve using the character keyboard (in the program) or switching the language for the program? Because I’ve known how to do that for a while and I’ve never actually had anyone sit down and tell me “this is how you do it” in class.
  
  Now if you asked me about Excel shortcuts, I would have no clue because I never really used it for work or in class.
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    September 15, 2011
    
    We don’t use other languages in this particular class. In the past, though, I had to teach students in my Spanish classes how to assign characters to keys.
    
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nominatissima

September 15, 2011

Huh, I learned all of that in elementary and middle school. We had keyboard lessons every afternoon for an hour. I wonder why these kids didn’t learn that.

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