At the beginning of my classes, I tell my students, “I know you don’t think
I know as much as you because I’m older. I assure you, I know way more than you
guys about this.”
I don't know that I'd put it just that way . . .
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Students Not So Web-Savvy?
The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus reports that sociologist Eszter Hargittai has discovered that students are not as web-savvy as professors might think. Some of her findings seem intuitive. For example, whether someone is web-savvy is related to his or her socioeconomic status. Also, students have difficulty evaluating the credibility of information on the web (e.g., not understanding why Wikipedia doesn't substitute for meatier sources). However, I don't necessarily agree with her definition of "web-savvy." She said that not being familiar with things like "phishing" and "BCC" is not being web-savvy. I'll have to think about that. Here's my favorite quote from the article:
I don't know that I'd put it just that way . . .
I don't know that I'd put it just that way . . .
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2 comments:
Tracy, thanks for addressing my work. In such a short interview, it is inevitable that nuances get left out. On my Web site you can find papers with much more detail about both how I conceptualize and how I measure "Web savvy" or what I most often refer to as user skills.
I think it is true that there is a perception that youth are universally tech-savvy. From personal experience, I know that this is not the case.
There may be a level of perceived tech-savviness where technology use is confused with technology understanding.
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