My goodness.

I do not believe that I insisted that computer skills be taught instead of Chaucer. 

I'm nearly certain that I never suggested that we teach Microsoft Word (*shudder*). I would argue that teaching concepts is more important than teaching skills...I could care less if we teach them what buttons to push.

What I did suggest is that a laptop requirement would increase the skillset that the majority of our students leave this university with, and make them more likely to succeed post-graduation.

Let us not jump to conclusions. You won't find anyone who will argue more fervently that students need a basic liberal arts education to be successful world citizens. But I can hold that position, and still believe that it is in the best interest of our students to require laptops at this university.

Jason
Assistant Professor
Reference/Instruction Librarian

-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List on behalf of Eric B. Wolf
Sent: Thu 10/27/2005 12:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Laptop Backlash
 
Jason Griffey wrote:
>  
 > The question isn't: "How will students use laptops in class X" but
 > instead should be "How can we best prepare our students to be
 > successful out in the world?"
 >
 > Again, my argument is that we are producing students on campus that,
 > even if they can quote Chaucer and tell me the biochemical makeup of
 > Sucrose, still hit the spacebar to line things up in Word.
 >
 > And that is a lack of literacy that is very worrisome for the future.
 > I would be prepared to argue that basic web literacy (can I produce a
 > basic webpage?), as well as basic document creation and other computer
 > skills are a necessity for 99% of the students in their futures.

I'm sorry if I sound a little incendiary, but that's the most 
short-sighted comment I've heard yet about the laptop issue!

OK. So we start teaching about how to use tab-stops in Word instead of 
Chaucer and we teach how to make sure your tags all close in HTML. We 
have reduced our students to the level of a technical school graduate. 
They are able to use technology in the current mode - but not able to 
create content.

The UNIVERSITY, especially one attempting to focus on the Liberal Arts, 
is supposed to help people learn how to do things like "create web 
content that compares the metaphors of characters the Canterbury Tales 
to President Bush's cabinet".

So, yes, we graduate students who can quote Chaucer! That's great. The 
reason they still use the space bar to line up things in Word is that 
tab stops is not an inuitive enough interface AND spaces work somewhat. 
At least, well enough not to get in the way of their content.

Further, the interface in Microsoft Word is maybe 20 years old if you 
are generous. Before then, you only had typewriters and university 
graduates didn't take typing classes, they paid typists to format their 
content.

What will the interface for a document processing system be 20 years 
from now? I can tell you one thing: the President, who ever she is, 20 
years from now, will have a cabinet that can insightfully be compared to 
Chaucer's characters!

-Eric Wolf
Technologist, Cartographer, Yogi

P.S. When I came back to the University after working for 12 years as a 
professional software developer, I decided to complete my degree in 
mathematics. I did this specifically because I wasn't going to waste my 
time learning stuff that would be outdated in 20 years. And I'm thankful 
for the broad, liberal arts, education I received here at UTC.