The good and bad

As with a few other things in class, I find myself simultaneously impressed and disappointed by my students.

I am mostly impressed with the topics they've been choosing. I was expecting to have to whittle down immense, broad topics like abortion, gun control, and marijuana into smaller, more manageable topics. Instead they've chosen focused topics that they are interested in and will make for some intriguing literature reviews. A geology major is researching about the Utah government trying to seize control of public lands. Another student is exploring whether supposed steroid users should be allowed in the baseball hall of fame. One of the topics I'm most interested to read about is whether deaf infants should be given auditory implants that replicate hearing. The majority of society says yes; segments of the deaf community (the "proud deaf") say no.

Now for the disappointment. Their research skills. For a generation brought up on the internet, I'm amazed at how little of it they actually understand. In our exercise on finding sources, 95% came up with "Google it."

Which isn't a bad start. But that's all they had. They didn't know where to go from there.

I showed them Google Scholar. We went through JSTOR and the library databases. When they came back for the next class, many reported that they hadn't been able to find anything. Apparently they had clicked on an article and when the full text didn't immediately appear, they gave up. I had to show them ways to keep searching for the articles.

Most of them had no idea what The Onion was. Most of them seemed surprised that there was actually fake news on the internet.

It's interesting that the characterization I most often hear about this generation is "they may have a lot of weaknesses, but at least they're tech-savvy." They're tech-savvy, but only to a point.