If you want a fascinating look at the ways the current generation of students think, read Don Tapscott’s book, Growing up Digital. Tapscott spent a year studying his own kids and others their age in order to get inside the mind of the first post-internet generation. The book is absolutely mesmerizing and provides fossilized geezers like us (meaning anyone over 20) a wakeup call for what the world is going to be like.

Tapscott show us how kids of the n-generation, as he calls them, think about and approach technology in an entirely different way that will certainly challenge those who teach in years to come.

However, even though many of the students coming to us view technology as very much a natural part of their environment, it may still be a mistake to assume that EVERY student has more technology skills than we ever dreamed of. It’s certainly true, many of the students now entering college know more about technology than we ever will. I know one freshman that SOLD HIS TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING FIRM just before coming to campus as a way of financing his education.

But, there are also more students out there than you would suspect who still have difficulty distinguishing between right and left mouse clicking or who have never used the web before. More importantly, these students tend NOT to seek help from you when they get stuck or lost. Like you, they may feel they are missing something everyone else already knows and so they hide.

Some students may have a bit of technology savvy, but still may not be used to communicating via e-mail or exchanging electronic files. Too many students do not understand the essential basics of backups and file management and how to preserve their precious work in a digital form. The dog stopped eating homework a while back, but his digital counterpart is still misplacing bits at an alarming rate.

So, as you embark on the web journey be prepared with a plan to make sure EVERYONE is up to technological speed in the first few days of a course. Give technology assignments the first day of class to see who can and who cannot use e-mail, drop files in the digital drop box, or post items to a discussion thread. THEN, make sure you have a plan to get those who need it, support and help right away.

Remember, NEVER assume, it only makes an……well, you get the idea...