Teaching the Net Generation without Leaving the Rest of Us Behind: How Technology in the Classroom Influences Student Composition

Abstract

Today's entering college students have the advantage of a lifetime of computer use. Education scholars and professionals claim that such exposure makes these students the most prepared ever to enter college. It cannot be argued that the advent of the Web, and Web 2.0 has placed at students' fingertips great works of literature, art, and science. It also cannot be argued that despite all this opportunity, students enter college writing with less precision than at any time in the last century. The two facts are reconcilable because (1) students map the world of technology differently than we do; and (2) they live in a digital culture different from our own. Until we understand that our perception of computers and technology is vastly different from our students, we cannot understand why they do what they do, and they will never understand what we want of them. This article argues that unless we change our pedagogy of technology, students and faculty will continue to be frustrated at poor performance, plagiarism, and misunderstandings about what each expects of the other. Los estudiantes que entran a la universidad en el siglo XXI tienen una ventaja sobre sus colegas de hace una década porque tienen toda una vida usando el computador. Académicos y profesionales afirman que dicha exposición convierte a estos estudiantes en los mejor preparados para entrar a la universidad. No puede ser negado que la llegada del internet y de la web 2.0 ha colocado al alcance de los estudiantes grandes obras de literatura, arte y ciencia. Tampoco puede ser negado que, a pesar de todas estas oportunidades, los estudiantes entran a la universidad escribiendo con menor precisión que cualquier otro momento en el último siglo. Ambos hechos son compatibles porque: (1) los estudiantes interpretan el mundo de la tecnología de forma diferente a nosotros, y (2) ellos viven en una cultura digital diferente a la nuestra. Hasta que comprendamos que nuestra percepción de las computadoras y la tecnología es diferente a la de nuestros estudiantes, no comprenderemos porque hacen lo que hacen, y ellos nunca comprenderán lo que queremos de ellos. Este artículo sugiere que, a menos que cambiemos nuestra pedagogía de la tecnología, estudiantes y profesores continuarán frustrados por el bajo rendimiento, plagio y malentendidos acerca de lo que cada uno espera del otro.

Maximizing Journal Article Citation Online: Readers, Robots, and Research Visibility

“…Fast. We are all no doubt acutely aware that the ways we search for, find, select, store, retrieve, evaluate, process, use, connect, cite, and even read (Moody and Bobic 2011; Nielsen 2006) scholarly research have transformed dramatically over the last decade, and are likely to evolve more quickly in the future as new technologies, resources, and apps become available—often monthly. It is, thus, no surprise that many major paid‐access academic journals have found their readership and subscription trends moving inexorably toward online‐only use.…”

“…Then it is up to the quality and content of the rest of the article to generate citations. Like it or not, the advent of F‐reading (see Moody and Bobic 2011; Nielsen 2006; Nielsen and Pernice 2009) suggests the majority of Internet users have become accustomed to processing data in approximately 140‐byte‐sized portions. The tendency is to read the first paragraph (abstract) in its entirety, about half of the second paragraph (introduction) less carefully, and skim almost vertically down the rest of the page, following the form of the letter F. If nothing arrests the attention, the reader moves on to the next page, often within 40‐60 seconds on a nonacademic website.…”