Technology, specifically the use of computers, has changed every aspect of American life. We no longer send letters, we email with a click of a button. Society now pays its bills online, goes to college online, and even finds love online. The 21 century is truly a technology based world. Technology has even changed the way we educate. Unfortunately not all students have the computer skills necessary to meet the new technology driven class room requirements.
My own experience at taking a composition class at Lincoln Land Community College echoes this reality. Even though the focus of the class is writing, students have to use the Internet and be able to transfer files. Also, the papers must be turned in electronically; students must have typing skills and be proficient in Word. While my Internet skills were adequate, I found myself lacking in typing ability, and no experience at all in word processing. This created numerous problems for me. I was very fortunate that family members were able to help me when I needed it. Other students may not have this type of support readily available.
My friend Janine is one of these students. Janine graduated from college in the 80’s. She is a very successful preschool teacher at a local Catholic Elementary School. Unfortunately Janine has no computer skills. She does not have an email address and she does not ever use the Internet. Janine does have a Facebook page, but it is updated by her daughters. She has never accessed it. It is with this background that Janine takes classes at Lincoln Land. Janine writes out all her papers by hand and then hires someone to type them for her. She never turns in anything using the Blackboard. This also means she has no access to the lesson plans, supporting material, or research information that is also posted on Blackboard. When a paper is due, Janine goes to the library and works all night going through the card catalog, navigating the Dewey Decimal System, and reading countless pages of unrelated information. Her peers are hitting the Internet, searching computers, narrowing down on the best resources almost instantly, all while she manually continues to search book after book. It is a travesty that she is allowed to continue functioning in this manner. The school and its professors are doing Janine no favors, and yet she has developed coping skills that allow her to still get by. Many other students fail to even get by.
I have another friend, Pam, who illustrates the real problem in black and white. She is also a college graduate from the 80’s. Pam was downsized from her management job at a local department store and found herself back in school. She signed up for an online computer class believing she had the skills to complete it. However, Pam is not involved in the social media world. Unfortuntantly,common searches via google are the extent of her computer knowledge. She generally had no idea what was being discussed, presented, and required in the class. Pam did not know enough to even understand the vocabulary of the class. After several weeks of constant struggle, she finally gave up and quit, forfeiting her tuition. Pam’s only hope of passing that class would have been to spend every day in the computer flex center. That would have been quite ironic considering the class was supposed to be an online course completed in the comfort of your home. It is also hard to miss the irony of a do it yourself online computer class being offered to someone who really could not use a computer.
Even had she gone, Pam would have encountered an overused and under staffed facility with students just like her. Vera Ramsey, an assistant in the flex center, stated, “After observing students in the lab, most need CTS 123 as a prerequisite to enter any class in Lincoln Land.” CTS 123 is an entry level computer course that covers the basics of Word and PowerPoint. Lisa Avendano from the writing center stated, “We frequently see students in the Writing Center who struggle with basic word processing. Many courses require word processed writing assignments and students without these basic skills experience greater stress with these assignments. An entry level computer skills class for these students would benefit them greatly.” Amy Chernowsky, a study skills specialist, believes basic computer skills are so important in her College Success class that the very first thing she covers is how to navigate black board, how to save your work to a file, and how to upload your work. Jill Campbell, the librarian, frequently has to help students submit their online FAFSA financial aid form because the students are so incompetent at using computers that they would not be able to apply otherwise.
These educated professional opinions are reinforced by a recent paper written by Goode titled, Mind The Gap: The Digital Dimension of College Access (Goode). Goode extensively investigates technology use in college classes. She found students lacking technology exposure were at a disadvantage due to significantly less access to research material. She also found students with poor technology skills were much more likely to avoid classes requiring technology proficiency. Also, the students were less likely to be plugged into the “pulse” of the school simply because most social information is now shared electronically. Most importantly, she found a direct correlation between computer skills and average income, the lower the income, the less proficient the students were at computers.
Given all this information it is clear Lincoln Land should add computer proficiency to the admissions testing process. Students that cannot pass the computer proficiency test should have to enroll in, and pass, a basic computer class before being allowed to take any other classes that require technology. Other community colleges in Illinois, and around the United States, are already moving in this direction. Illinois Valley Community College requires the Basic Computer Skills Inventory (BCSI) prior to enrollment. Students scoring below a 75 are then highly encouraged to take the course CSP-1206 – Computer Skills for College Success (ivcc.edu). Baltimore City Community College takes this concept a step further. Its students are not allowed to get their Associates Degree until they have scored at least a 70 on their Computer Literacy Test (bccc.edu). Performing a Google search on “college computer literacy test” will reveal college after college (nearly all, local community colleges) that have integrated computer literacy requirements into their admissions process.
Lincoln Land, as a public tax payer-funded institution, is not serving the public need when they allow uninformed prospective students to sign up for classes they are not prepared to pass, especially when this practice could be so easily avoided. Students averting technology requirements are just prolonging their incompetence, reducing their viability in the job market, and limiting their ability to fully function in the college and world environments. It is understandable that an institution like the University of Illinois would not cater to such simple deficiencies. Clearly Harvard would not spend its time on these matters. Their students would be expected to be proficient at the highest levels. A community college clearly has a different calling. Its mission is to raise the collective education of its local community. A community college serves the needs of those students unable to get entrance to more prestigious public and private institutions. Thus it becomes responsible to ensure its students’ technology needs are being met. As the Goode paper mentioned, the students attending community college are by definition the most likely population to need extra technology assistance. Our community colleges need to take responsibility for the education of their students technology needs and ensure they are truly prepared for the competitive technology enhanced world that awaits them upon their graduation.
It is irresponsible and wrong for Lincoln Land to allow students to take a class that they are incapable of passing. This practice is little more than stealing. My friend Pam enrolled in a class that she will not be reimbursed for, that she never had a chance of passing. What is worse is that there were classes available for her that would have been an appropriate investment for her skill level. Janine has taken classes for years by hiring people to type her papers and then turning them in by hand instead of uploading them to the blackboard like other students in the class. While this may seem like a nice display of teacher tolerance and patience, in reality it has just provided a crutch for Janine to get around her technology shortcomings with no plan to ever solve them. It is my hope that in the future students like Pam, Janine, and myself will be screened for our computer skill level and then appropriately required to take classes to ensure we are prepared for this new technology driven world that we find ourselves drowning in.
Works Cited
Goode, Joanna. "Mind the Gap: The Digital Dimension of College Access." Journal of Higher Education 81.5 (2010):
583-618. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.
583-618. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.
Illinois Valley Community College. "Basic Computer Skills for College Success." Illinois Valley Community College. IVCC, 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2011.
Baltimore City Community College."The Test Center" Baltimore City Community College. BCCC, 2011. Web 05 May 2011.
