College Students and Technology

Technology savvy Generation Y college students have a much different experience than I did. Back in the day (1992), college students were lucky to have a computer.

I graduated from college in 1992, so I’m not exactly mummified. But in the years since I graduated, technology has transformed the college campus and the college experience. My technology savvy Generation Y students stroll around campus with their iPods and cell phones. They write papers on their laptops while updating their MySpace or Facebook pages and instant messaging their roommates.

Here’s what college was like way back in the day (a whole fourteen years ago!) As an undergraduate, I did not own a computer. Only a few of my lucky friends owned these expensive apparatuses, like my friend Laura. When we had to write papers, the rest of us poor schmucks used typewriters, waited in line for hours at the computer lab, or hung out in Laura’s room. I also did not have email. When my friend Andrew studied abroad in Germany, we exchanged letters, which took a full week to reach each other.

And music? I got my first CD player as a college graduation present. I listened to cassettes and made mix tapes when I was bored or had a broken heart. I would have sold my right arm for an iPod, if such a thing existed. Instead, my cassette Walkman with a broken battery case was one of my favorite possessions. The tapes would get tangled, and I’d have to unwind them by hand with a pen cap.

And cell phones? Are you kidding? I had a couple of friends who carried around Walkie Talkies (Betsy and Shaun, this means you), but most of us just had room phones that weren’t even cordless. There was no voice mail, but my roommate Michele had an answering machine that would crash onto the floor if you pulled the phone too hard. My stepmother, who graduated from the same school in 1977, thought I had it made with a room phone, because in her day students had to share a pay phone down the hall.

It floors me how important technology has become in the lives and educational experiences of my students. My students text message each other in class (a major professor pet peeve), and listen to their iPods all the time, as if their lives had a soundtrack. One of my students last year sat in the front row, participated actively, and listened to her iPod. She said she couldn’t concentrate otherwise (and she got an A in the class). Students can do most of their research at their desk, check their grades on-line, and are accustomed to Power Point in the classroom.

Some professors complain that students are losing out on interpersonal skills because they communicate via IM and email and tune everybody out with iPods. To some degree, this may be true. But hey, students, I would have loved all of this technology when I was an undergraduate. So enjoy it.