Thursday, April 26, 2001

tech.life@school | Joyce Kasman Valenza

Skills that college freshmen need

Students are computer-savvy but know little about research and information ethics, professors say.

Just how well-prepared are our students to face the technology challenges of their freshman year of college?

In interviews, college professors overwhelmingly spoke of a new academic push for information literacy skills and information ethics. That push has been spurred by the easy accessibility of Internet resources. Surprisingly, the computer skills of their new students were of secondary importance.

Catherine Schifter, associate professor in Temple University's department of curriculum, instruction and technology in education, finds her students "come into the college environment with a lack of understanding of how to interpret material - what's good, what's not good. They are not clear on ethical issues of how to cite. They don't know that it is not appropriate to steal clip art. They may have been taught that there are copyright rules, but the concept of intellectual property hasn't sunk in. Most believe if it's this easy, it must be OK."

"If you asked most students about their self-efficacy, they'd tell you they believe they're tech-savvy and technologically advanced," Schifter said. "They use Yahoo regularly, and they don't know the difference among any of the search engines, and they don't use subject directories appropriately." And, Schifter noted, "they think they can get everything off the Web."

In terms of skills, Schifter said: "My students have had little experience with spreadsheets. They may have used databases, but most have never made one. Most need to know how to create a word-processed document and how to do it well. . . . It seems that they'd learned how to type and have been able to turn in papers that suffice, with minimum formatting."

Schifter said that many of her colleagues require students to create and keep an electronic portfolio. "We're moving in that direction; students need to be able to create a professional Web page."

Ken Hartman teaches a similar course, Introduction to Educational Technology, at Widener University. Of his 60 freshmen, only one had any experience with multimedia, only one had ever created a Web page. To compensate, Hartman requires his students to produce and post their work in electronic portfolios.

Online behavior is an issue for Hartman. "I created a listserv for my students so they could communicate with each other and with me," Hartman said. "This year was the first time I used it with freshmen. I thought they'd use it responsibly."

But one of his students used the list to broadcast his negative comments about the class to the entire class, including the professor. Hartman had to explain to the student that his actions constituted inappropriate use of this tool. He reminded the student of listserv protocol, and removed the student from the listserv. Hartman faces similar issues using live chat. Students frequently engage in side conversations that might include: "Who wants to get a beer after class?" "They just don't understand the rules of the road" in an academic environment, Hartman said.

He added that students need a better understanding of intellectual property and better research skills. Electronic plagiarism is common and "they're Yahoo-dependent," Hartman said. He said few bother to find out what subscription services are available from the university library. Those services would provide the scholarly resources and academic journals critical for college research.

"They're . . . unaware of what's available; they think free is best. In terms of the three major areas of information use - acquisition, analysis, and presentation - I find my students are lacking in all three."

At Haverford College, Doug Davis, professor of psychology, said 90 percent of entering students bring their own computers."For some, it's a major source of recreation," Davis said. "They don't bring hi-fis anymore. And Napster made computer geeks out of many who weren't geeks before." Davis finds the widest difference among his students is whether they can quickly develop a thesis, find and compile information, and carefully analyze the quality of what they find. "Students don't realize that an article in Newsweek is not academic research," Davis said. "They are not as aware as they should be of library databases. The college and the library staff do a good job, but this learning is generally not part of coursework, and optional."

"My view is that what they know about technology is less important than how they think about their work," said Bob Kieft, who directs the library at Haverford College. "That is, I would hope that they would be able to think critically and independently about the sources they use, be curious and imaginative about the projects they are working on, be open to the topic in ways that lead them to ask good questions, and bring their analytical powers to bear."

Kieft is especially concerned that his students not limit their work to the Web, "that they not conflate the value of sources with the apparent 'efficiency' and convenience of obtaining them electronically."

Kieft is also concerned that students "be sensitive to the civility and other communal issues raised by networked computing." For Kieft, whether students learn how to troubleshoot, or figure out how to load and use an application, "are all of secondary importance."

Stephen Bell, director of the Paul H. Gutman Library at the Philadelphia University, is concerned about a generation of "Web-centric" students more likely to pose questions to Ask Jeeves than to the information professionals who are there to help them. Bell also teaches online searching courses at Drexel University.

"My observation is that students are definitely coming with more technology skills than ever before," said Bell. "We have at least 75 percent of residential students bringing their own PCs. The students perceive themselves to be technology-savvy because they can fiddle with hardware, have mastered video games, can download songs from Napster. . . . But things that you or I would take for granted, such as understanding an advanced search screen or even being able to use an OPAC [an online public access catalog], completely bewilder them."

Bell said that if he were going to recommend areas in which students need better preparation, he'd suggest basic information literacy skills, that in addition to the Microsoft Office suite and competence with institutional e-mail, "students know how to use an OPAC; understand how a library database differs from a search engine; understand that not everything is available in full text." ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joyce Kasman Valenza is the librarian at Springfield High School in Erdenheim, Pa. Her column appears each week in tech.life. E-mail: joyce.valenza@phillynews.com.

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