“A blessing and a curse”
At a school where getting a bound copy of a journal from the library requires requesting it from a computer and a six-story crane to bring it out of an automated storage system, technology is making a significant impact on the way Utah State University students research and study.
Many professors agree technology has changed things for students over the years – whether that is a good or a bad thing is debatable.
Greg Jones is an associate professor and the associate department head of the computer science department.
Jones said the difference between how students do their work now and when he was a student is enormous because there are so many different sources available now.
“In the old days, we depended on well-known journals,” Jones said.
He said on the Internet, people can just post things and it is uncontrolled and unsupported information.
Jones said it’s obvious that it is easier to find things rapidly on the Internet. He said it is a lot faster than when he went to school, since he would have to wait for Interlibrary Loan if the library didn’t have it.
Jones said in the computer science department technology has obviously played a huge role. Students can create more challenging software a thousand times faster, he said.
The tools that they have now allow students to create something much more impressive in a lot less time, he said.
Jones said when he came to USU in 1976, students were making programs on punch cards and it would take hours. Now it takes five minutes on a computer.
Another big change, Jones said, was that students have their own computers, so they can be anywhere.
“They can be on the Quad, at home, wherever,” Jones said. “They don’t have to wait for the lab to open.”
He said it is faster, more convenient and much more powerful.
Jennifer Sinor, an assistant professor in the English department, said research technology is a lot different from when she went to school. She used print sources and did a lot of photocopying.
“I didn’t use the Internet for research,” Sinor said. “I used the books at the library.”
Most schools can’t afford an extensive library anymore, Sinor said, so students have to rely on the Internet to get the sources they need.
“The Internet is a blessing and a curse,” Sinor said. “Students come to the university with very little knowledge of how to do traditional research. They don’t know how to do anything besides use the Internet.”
But Sinor said there are good sides to that because there is a huge amount of information at their fingertips. But she said she believes students have never been taught to be critical examiners of the information they have at their disposal.
The Internet is also limited and not everything found on it is true, Sinor said.
David Lewis, a professor in the history department, said students basically do research the same way he did, but now they look online for the same resources.
Instead of using microfilm or other ways of getting the information, they are just going to the Internet. The sources haven’t changed, but the ways to access it have.
“They are using a different vehicle to get to the same material,” Lewis said.
In the history department, Lewis said finding a primary source is important, so technology is very helpful. They don’t have to travel to look at a historical document anymore because there will be a copy of it on the Internet.
Cutting travel time isn’t the only reason to put things online, though. Lewis said an old diary can be better preserved if everyone who wants to look at it can see a copy instead of touching it.
David Hole, professor in the plant science department, said technology has changed his field a lot.
Hole said science classes, such as the genetics class they teach in his department, have changed a great deal because of technology. He said half of what they teach in the genetics class they didn’t know when he took the class in 1978.
Record keeping is a lot easier with computers, Hole said. He said he has a book in his office full of old records that were written down. He said all of those records are in spreadsheets on his computer now.
Because of technology, Hole said more calculations can be done faster and equipment used in plant breeding, which is what he specializes in, is more sophisticated.
Researching literature has also become more sophisticated, he said. The Internet makes literature easy to find to a point.
Hole said that point is about 1974 because most things before then aren’t accessible electronically. To find things before that year it takes more work.
Philip Swensen, a professor of business administration, said when he went to graduate school, their wasn’t even have a four-function calculator – they used slide rules.
Swensen said technology has eliminated “laborious work that it used to take, and there are fast tools to do it.”
When he went to school, Swensen said he used charts and tables to calculate things, but now calculators do everything. He said he still makes his students learn how the calculator works, though.
“I think there is a danger in students not learning what the calculator is doing for them,” Swensen said.
Swensen teaches classes on investments and compared the way they used to track and trade stocks to how it works now. He has a program on his computer that allows him to look at any stock in real time, but he said he used to have to go look in the library and the information was six months old.
“It allows us to get information as quickly as the big guys on Wall Street get it,” Swensen said. “I can look at what my portfolio is worth – not six months ago – but right now.
“Technology is the cat’s meow in our discipline,” Swensen said.
Most agree that there are good and bad things that come along with technology. One of the bad things is cheating. Cheating becomes easier when the information is so easily accessible.
The material is presented in a format that makes it easier to cheat and copy, whether that is intentional or not, Lewis said.
“The Internet makes [things] very convenient,” Lewis said. “But it leads to the next convenience, which is plagiarism.”
Many students are just trying to get their work done quickly instead of learning the information, Lewis said. The Internet makes copying and pasting the information that much easier and more tempting, he said.
Lewis said the students are taught in basic English classes what plagiarism is, so the real issue is the students who are going to cheat no matter what.
Lewis said it is unfortunate that students get in a hurry to get something done and cheat. He said it is important that classes that involve writing be upfront about plagiarism so there isn’t an excuse.
“Ignorance isn’t an excuse,” Lewis said. “The internet is a different kind of source – it’s not a book or an article – it’s public, people use it and take it as their own.”
The Internet has created a different kind of cheating, Lewis said. Students can easily Google a phrase and find sources of information. Lewis said he tries in his classes to make assignments where that type of cheating would be almost impossible. But he said he knows it still happens.
Though it’s much more accessible and tempting, Lewis said it is also easier for teachers to find cheaters. They can put a phrase into an Internet search and find it quickly if it’s been copied.
“Even if it is ‘un-Google-able,’ [cheating] can be found,” Lewis said.
“The Internet is just the Internet,” Lewis said. “It’s not good or bad – it’s both. “It creates access to stuff that wasn’t available before, but there’s also a lot of crap out there.”
Lewis said students need to become informed consumers. They need to read things on the Internet as critically as they would historical documents, he said.
Jones said a cautious student can get away with using another persons’ ideas as their own, just by rephrasing.
“It doesn’t take much sense,” he said.
Students need to examine sources and make sure it is valid information, Jones said.
He said students will Google something and just look for something that catches their eye, but it is not necessarily a good source.
“There is less deep understanding and consideration of things,” Jones said. “Speed tends to make you not concentrate on what you are seeing.”
The huge change in technology has lead to less insight and understanding, Jones said.
Hole said technology is causing social problems that he didn’t see when he was growing up.
“We were raised with isolation and that is gone now,” he said.
Hole said in the 10 years he’s been teaching at USU, there have been huge changes in the sophistication of students. They understand technology a lot more now.
“They are just texting away in class,” Hole said.
Swensen said he thinks technology has made cheating a lot easier because students can text message back and fourth.
Swensen said students who cheat their way through classes will just have a harder time in classes in the future, especially the ones that build on others.
“I’m firmly convinced that most students have a desire to learn the stuff – or at least my best students do,” Swensen said. “And they’re the ones I’m most concerned with.”
-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu