College is a time in which people from an assortment of backgrounds and upbringings come together for a similar purpose. Sometimes it feels like professors don’t remember this crucial detail when undergraduates start at the college. Every elementary, middle, and high school across the country have a different approach to using technology; so the student body of a college is often comprised of varying digital literacy levels. Ash Garzilli, being a senior at the College of Charleston, was able to give me some insight into what the transition was like for them and how professors could better utilize what preexisting knowledge students bring to the classroom.
Starting off with Ash’s elementary school experience, they went to a private Christian school in Atlanta, Georgia where there was an absence of any substantial digital literacy practices from kindergarten through the fourth grade. So it came as a bit of a shock to Ash when they moved to upstate South Carolina, where students had been doing standardized testing on computers for years. This seems to be about the extent of technology being used by the students around this age besides the occasional typed essay.
Similar to most college students, Ash comes from a digital background that only provided the basics. An interesting part of Ash’s past practices is that technology wasn’t really incorporated into the elementary school education that they received until they moved states in the fifth grade. This contrasts their college experience where they use their computer for practically everything. Ash’s elementary school experience also contradicts the assumption that all current college students have practically grown up with an iPhone in hand.
Going into middle school and high school, Ash was gradually introduced to more digital literacy practices besides standardized testing. They took a few required computer science courses, mainly focusing on either technical skills like typing or basic computer programs.
A handy lesson from these literacy practices was the ability to find sources while researching. This is when the literacy practices in high school differed a bit between Ash’s experience and my own. Ash stated that they often relied on Google searches for sources while my school would base assignments around using EBSCOhost. Ash might have used Google over a more formal digital database, but they still learned the different reliable sources from unreliable ones. That’s why recognizing what students might have taught themselves is so important. Most high schools teach their students about online research, but the methods aren’t equal across the board. This leaves students to figure out much of the information on their own. In Ash’s situation, now being a senior, they now have a collection of ways to find information compared to when they were younger. Most of this new knowledge can likely be contributed to lessons from the college library, professors, and self-teaching.
Something that is important to keep in mind is that students also teach themselves a lot of the fine details when it comes to digital literacy. Since high school is often the time when students get phones, this is the time that their digital practices really begin to venture outside of the classroom. Ash pointed out that their in-classroom practices held some influence over their personal practice, especially when reading articles that interested them. Students are likely teaching themselves about reliable and unreliable sources during these personal digital practices. This practice would have a heavy influence on students since it is the easiest to partake in as it is right at their fingertips. If schools could better understand the practices that students have taught themselves, then they could add on or critique more effectively.
K through 12 provides students with the foundation for what they will need in college, but not every school makes the same foundation. Students often have to fill in some of the blanks to the best of their ability. So when students come to college and are expected to get the same results it doesn’t always work out well. Ash points out that might help with this disconnect is by working with the students’ knack for technology to get them to interact more. High schools touch on it a little, but if professors contact students through apps like GroupMe. It might help with approachability and break some of the barriers between professors and students, especially when it comes to asking questions about assignments. Going this route might also prompt faster responses from students since they are more likely to see a text before an email. Tapping into the smaller details is a key first step in making the relationship between professors and students stronger.
Below, I’ve included an edited transcript of the email interview I was able to conduct with Ash.
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DR: How has technology been incorporated into your learning throughout your school experiences starting from elementary school and up? Do you think the presence of technology helped you during the earlier stages of your life?
AG: Technology wasn’t super prominent in my schooling experience until I was approaching middle school – I think the first time I remember using a computer in school was in 5th grade for some kind of standardized test. After that, it became more and more common; at first, it would be individual typing classes, and eventually became commonplace in any and all classes to use computers for classwork. It did help in some ways, like making information much more readily available to me and everyone else via the Internet.
DR: How much do you use technology while studying now that you are in college? What forms of technology do you tend to use the most?
AG: I pretty much depend on technology to do all of my studying. I prefer to get e-books instead of physical textbooks when I can or find PDFs online of required readings. I depend heavily on my computer and occasionally my phone.
DR: How do you think that the use of technology during your earlier years of school impacted your current digital literacy practices?
AG: To be honest… A lot of my current digital literary practices were things I learned in my own time. I suppose the computer classes I took as a kid were very formative in terms of teaching the basics, like how to use Microsoft Word programs and how to type properly. I certainly spent a very long time stubbornly typing with one finger on each hand before a teacher taught me otherwise…
DR: How do you think your digital literacy practices in school have evolved from high school to college?
AG: I use my computer in a much more diverse way when it comes to my college schoolwork versus my high school work. In high school, though I did rely on my computer a lot, it didn’t go far beyond using Google to do research and Word to type essays. In college, you have to know much more about how to find information and use a multitude of programs for various different courses. I’ve had to use several programs that were developed for specific courses during my time in college, which would be unheard of to have in high school.
DR: How does your literacy practices inside the classroom vary from those that you practice in your free time?
AG: I’d say my literary practices outside the classroom are much less rigid. I can do things in my own way at my own pace, while my professors generally have specific rules and timeframes in which I’m expected to do my work. Of course, I’m also inherently treating them very differently – my digital practices outside of class are going to be more focused on being recreational, like playing video games or doing digital art, while in the classroom I’m focusing on doing my classwork.
DR: Going off of my previous question, how do you find your digital literacy practices interacting with each other?
AG: I would say the primary way they intersect, besides the obvious basics like understanding how to type or use the Internet properly/safely, is knowing how to find valid information. Keeping updated on current events is quite important to me, and information is more easily accessible than ever these days – however, not all of it is going to be truthful or accurate, so it’s important to know how to pinpoint trustworthy sources. These skills are things I’ve learned and continue to practice in almost all of my classes and use often in my recreational time.
DR: How have professors possibly influenced your current digital literacy practices?
AG: My professors are continually influencing my digital practices by teaching me new information. New ways to conduct research, formulate opinions, and interpret information. A specific example could be this class, actually. For instance, the coding assignment we had a few days ago was super new to me — I’d never conducted research in that way at all. Professors are constantly giving me, as a student, new ways to engage with and find information that aids in improving my digital literacy skills. Overall, digital literacy improves over time like building blocks; every professor I’ve ever had has contributed at least one block, sometimes more, to create the literacy ability I have today.
DR: And finally, how do you think professors could better coordinate their classes to work with your digital literacy practices inside and outside of class?
AG: I think some professors could take advantage of our generation’s reliance on technology to improve their classroom’s understanding of the material or to help keep them engaged. There are apps like GroupMe that can help people stay in touch and on top of assignments, or put together study groups in a way that’s less intimidating than personally sending an e-mail to individuals in their class.