Introduction
Entering college is often acknowledged as a major milestone for all those who choose to attend. Along with the reaching of that milestone is a whole slew of new responsibilities, new opportunities and new freedoms. Like any other considerable changes to one’s mode of living, college additionally introduces unfamiliar stressors and unprecedented struggles to new students. The unfamiliar pressures that coincide with tertiary education are only being compounded now by the proliferation of the novel Coronavirus pandemic, which necessitates a largely digital mode of learning. Although an experience shared by many students who attend college, these trials and tribulations associated with the college experience are worth examining closely because doing so may lead to methods of alleviating some of the added pressure for both current and future students.
Evan Scheinberg, a junior at College of Charleston, is no exception from this overwhelming transition into college. In his case, however, much of the added pressure of undergraduate life fell on the academics side, rather than the social. Between the increasingly boosted caliber of college coursework and the intensified nuance of college courses that high school courses lack, Evan’s capacity to get the most out of his education and perform to the best of his ability were hindered by the largely digital modes of instruction in the College’s courses.
Specifically, he faced the most notable hardships in his English major courses, when having to complete lengthy prose readings online, as opposed to reading them on a paper handout or within the binds of a book. Although a seemingly niche problem, Evan’s strife is shared by plenty of other college students who, in their primary and secondary education experiences, were acclimated to tangible methods of completing classwork and grasping course materials.
Whether it is note taking, annotating readings or even solving math homework problems, many students who are currently enrolled in college were raised in a world that only minimally (when compared to the current status quo of computer use, which is ubiquitous) relied on the use of computers to complete work, and instead worked mainly on paper. With a background like this, it is expected for students among this age group to face challenges with having to habituate themselves to mainly digital assignments. The onset of the novel Coronavirus has only exacerbated such struggles, with all college classes shifting to strictly digital realms.
The topical nature of Evan’s hardships with being an English major, who prefers annotating in a tangible book, in a predominately digital academic environment made his story all the more worth examining with a close eye. I had the opportunity to spend some time asking Evan questions in order to develop a better understanding of the difficulties he has faced while adapting to the heavy computer usage in college courses.
In this interview, I was able to learn about Evan’s unique, foundational history of computer usage (which was interestingly both recreational and academic, and exposed him to the need for accessible digital technology), the hardships he endured when coming to, and learning throughout college, the tools he employed to minimize and deal with those struggles and how he has, overall, benefitted from becoming largely acclimated to using computers for almost all of his coursework.
In a time where so much of our lives is based in an online realm and our world is constantly evolving, it is necessary to understand what kinds of work are most productive when completed online, and more importantly, how people are able to complete that work—especially when it doesn’t align with the methods of working that so many people are and have been comfortable with. Case studies, that allow for a deep dive into an individual’s work modes, are of the utmost value when trying to gain such understandings. By learning and consequently analyzing stories, like that of Evan, we are able to see which tools are being used to adapt, which genres of classwork and course materials work best in a digital mode and the areas or points of struggling associated with work modes. Such insights provide administrators and professors the ability to understand, address and consequently improve methods of instruction, so as to align with the demands of the external world as well as help facilitate students’ education.
I have included an edited version of the interview below, which was altered for both clarity and length.
Interview With Evan
KH: How did you become involved with digital technology during your childhood, like was it a computer in your ‘computer room’ in your house, or something else?
ES: So, my dad works in healthcare software, so he’s always been big with tech, but he’s also legally blind. So growing up, a lot of what I did, like as soon as I learned how to read normal text, I was helping him read things on his computer before technology was really kind of put out that helps enlarge text, and is designed to help disabilities like that. A lot of my early days using a computer became just helping my dad read things off of his screen.
So that’s like my very first memory of literacy in a digital fashion is just kind of doing that when I was younger and, you know, playing on the computer, and that kind of stuff. And I know you said in your journal post that you were taught digital literacy in school, and in computer labs, from a really young age, and I was too.
That’s where it kind of stems from, I guess in-school, but when I was kind of started digging back [in my memory] about when I first became involved with digital literacy practices I was literally reading things off of screens for my dad, I was like five years old.
KH: Do you feel that those early interactions with digital technology made you understand it as a necessity in day-to-day life? Like, did having to read to your dad make you see technology as something that is gonna be important in your life?
ES: Yeah, I think that at a really young age I didn’t necessarily grasp it like I would a few years later, and understanding that using a computer is something that everyone needs to learn how to do. But I think yeah, I think that helped me kind of like, you know, seeing my dad try to adapt to this kind of thing, seeing the world move around it, and we kind of grew up at that perfect time with the digital age, where everything is evolving, so if we kind of track the trend and move with the change. So I think that yeah, growing up and watching how I was taught digital literacy and what computers are used for and watching that change over the years definitely had a pretty big impact on my understanding of it all.
KH: So you explained in your journal post that some of your early interactions with a computer were playing games, but I wanted to ask: are you glad that your earliest interactions were in recreational contexts, do you feel that being able to play on a computer before having to work on a computer made them more appealing to you?
ES: Yeah, I think that before I got into using a computer as a primary tool in school, that playing games at a young age and seeing it as a recreational activity, not just an academic thing
I think that if I had grown up and I had gone to school and only used computers for school-related activities or work-related activities, and that was all that was explained to me or told that I was to use it for, I don’t think I would be using a computer every single day as an everyday tool. So I think even at the basic level, just having that early exposure to using computers for things other than getting tasks done definitely boosted my interest and boosted my comfort level with computers in general.
KH: Do you think that maybe having been introduced to it through games made you less interested in using a computer as a tool?
ES: I don’t know if it made me less interested. Once I learned to use it as a tool, I think my view of using a computer shifted because I saw it in two different lights. I was able to distinguish the two, rather than picking one or the other. I think just having that recreational foundation and being able to use a computer, like when you’re playing games you can still kind of explore on your own and have that autonomy, whereas when reading a book, you’re reliant on yourself, and if you have a question or you don’t understand something there isn’t always that safety that you have on a computer. I think that it helps me see it in two different lights, rather than one over the other.
KH: Aside from reading for classes, have you been hesitant using computers for academic activities? Like writing papers or anything?
ES: I think with computers, in terms of everything else besides reading long form prose, I’m better at than with tangible material. But when it comes to sitting and trying to read, like I’m taking a 202 class and we have to read Frankenstein online, and I cannot just sit there and read chapters of books on a computer, I just cannot focus when doing that. But everything else, like writing papers, to a degree there’s always going to be some sort of distraction that you get just by having the open accessibility of a computer. But I think the only thing that I hesitate about and struggle with and try to work around is long form writing on a computer, or on a screen in general. That’s kind of where I hesitate, but everything else I think I have a firm grasp on. I adapt well and understand well.
KH: Is there any particular reason you don’t like reading long form prose on a computer?
ES: I honestly think part of it has something to do with just staring at a screen and just reading down the screen from top to bottom. Also, I’m big with annotating, so I always buy a new copy of my class textbooks so I can write and highlight in it. You can do that online, but it works way better for me personally when I can physically do it and mark it down. So that’s my biggest thing, I just have that routine. But for everything else, even just web articles I can do that online. But if it’s something longer, that I really need to sit and digest, then I find that difficult to do.
KH: Are there any other activities aside from long form prose that you prefer completing tangibly?
ES: I wrote in one of my discussion posts a while back that I don’t necessarily have a preference for note taking, I do both. It kind of varies subject to subject. Like I didn’t start taking notes on a computer until I got to college, but it just really depends on how I’m feeling. Some days I’ll take notes on a computer, some days I’ll bring my notebooks to class. I really think I’ve made almost a full transition to doing everything digitally. Like I’m not the most organized person, so doing everything online, like sometimes you do have to dig through files, but even on Google Docs, everything saves automatically and I know exactly where I can access it, so just putting everything in the Google Drive just helps me personally stay organized and stay on track. The only thing that I do physically and tangibly is read actual text.
KH: While you explained your use of the CSL and other on-campus resources did you experience any other impediments in this transition from tangible texts to digital texts?
ES: I think the biggest impediment I really faced was trying to teach myself how to annotate and take notes online. Just like trying to get into the habit of doing it and following through. It came down to the little things, like if you have to download a document that’s been scanned and you have to zoom in and it kind of contorts the page and it gets kind of confusing. I’ve even messed up citations because I messed up page numbers, because of zooming in. So the only real roadblocks I faced were just the little adjustments you have to make. I feel like a lot of the transition from tangible to digital, it’s pretty easy to find parallels and get in the flow of things really fast. But for me personally, the little things with notetaking, annotation and literally reading the document really kind of held me back from making that full transition immediately.
KH: What would you say was the most difficult aspect of this transition, as well as the easiest?
ES: I think the most difficult was having the schoolwork and the assignments being given to me, going from physical copies to everything being online and being responsible to print it out on my own, that was kind of the biggest difficulty I faced was just fully adjusting to reading everything online and writing everything online.
In high school, I used my computer a lot, obviously, to write papers online and submit them, but when I was in school we kept journals and we were turning work in by hand. So first semester my freshman year of college, it was a big adjustment for me to get used to things not being physically handed to me, but rather being responsible for it and knowing where to find it on the web.
I think the easiest part was typing and writing. That was kind of the focus of a lot of what I did growing up in school. We used computers more in our english classes than others. So making the transition to writing everything online wasn’t very difficult for me at all.
KH: How do you think that your ability to interact with digital texts has benefitted you since making it?
ES: I think the biggest thing, in terms of how it’s benefitted me, is helping with organizational stuff. Like having everything in digital form and saved in a drive on my computer eliminates a lot of what was really tough for me as a student and confusing for me. I struggled a lot with keeping my notes organized and keeping things in order. A lot of applications on a computer do that for you so you don’t even have to worry about it. Since I’ve made that full transition, I’ve noticed a lot of my habits being improved and overall school practices. I think just that and literally having that open tab, like you said, when writing and having that accessibility to anything I want. Writer’s block is definitely still a thing but that kind of acts like an instant idea generator, which I really like.