One of the great gifts a college campus offers all its students is a plethora of information technologies. In fact you will probably be around more types of information technology during your years in college than at any point in your life. While you are on campus I strongly suggest you make learning all you can about these systems something of a hobby. Your institution will no doubt have some required course called something like Introduction to Computers, but that is not enough. How much is enough?
Let me tell you this little story, every so often a friend of mine brings in the local weather guy from one of the networks to speak in her Introduction to Mass Communications class. One of the main points he tries to make to her students is “learn to learn technology.” He says this because in the fifteen or so years he has been a news weatherman for this station they have changed computer systems five—yes five—times. I am not talking about a change from Windows XP to Windows Vista. I mean whole new systems. If you are saying “but I am not going to be a weather forecaster” you have missed the point of my story.
The point is no matter what your job is it’s going to involve information technologies. The more versed you are in all these systems the more opportunities you create for yourself. Perhaps that is why Indiana State University will be requiring Lenovo ThinkPads for every member of the incoming freshman class of 2007. I think it’s great that IU wants all their students to have a laptop. I think it will be even better if IU has a commitment that every student learn that laptop’s full capabilities and not just use it as an expensive typewriter/entertainment device.
Truth be told, I am not exactly sure how to accomplish this goal, because I am not exactly sure how much knowledge each reader brings to this book. But I can tell you how I learned and continue to learn everything I know about computers. Ready? I asked someone who knew more than me and I listened. That’s it. I didn’t take classes; I didn’t read a lot of thick manuals. I just asked questions of people who knew more than I did.
Now when you are on a college campus you are not only surrounded by what may be the greatest diversity of information systems you may ever encounter but you are also surrounded by people who know how to make this stuff work for you. So why not take advantage of this opportunity for which you or someone is paying large sums of money? Just ask and listen and try for yourself. If you do this long enough this magic moment will happen where suddenly it all makes sense. Maybe you are already there, maybe it will take until the last semester of your senior year, but the point is to spend a few minutes a day every day you are in school getting smarter about this stuff.
Did you notice how I keep calling them information systems? That’s not just me being redundant or overly clever. It’s me being descriptive. The point of learning “computers” is it improves our ability to make meaning. That’s what computers are, they are meaning making tools. Back in the day when Apple introduced the “computer for the rest of us” they meant people who were more interested in making meaning with a computer than typing in odd bits of language to make the computer compute. So if you are thinking, “There’s no way I am going to learn how these things work.” Remember that’s another way of saying I already know all I’ll ever need to know about making meaning. Then flip back a few pages and reread the weather forecaster story.
To that end I am going to give you a starter list of things to do your first semester. Whatever semester you are in you can consider this your first semester. At the end of this section is a list. It’s a list of things I think you should be able to do with a computer by the time you graduate college. Try checking off a few of these every semester.
Buying a new system for school? Get a new Mac.
Whenever I lecture about technology I am always asked by at least one person about what computer they should buy. I sigh inside because I know what’s coming.
I am going to give them good advice that they probably won’t take. Then I tell them I’d buy a Mac. OK, first it is total disclosure time. I have multiple Macs in my house and I own stock in Apple. I also have many pieces of clothing with the Apple logo on it. None of these reasons are why I think you should buy a Mac. I think you should buy a Mac because if you do you will also be able to run Windows and Linux on it.
Can you do that if you buy another company’s computer? Probably not reliably and, for sure, not legally. But if you did buy a Mac that means that you will be able to run any operating system and any program made for that operating system. Most incoming freshmen change their major a number of times. What if you chose a major that prefers one operating system over the other. Business programs are all about Windows, Communication programs often favor OS X, Computer Science majors are expected to know both those and Linux.
Apparently I am not alone in this thinking, Needham and Company (they are an investment firm) surveyed college students about the ability to run Windows applications on a Mac and found the following: “Two important statistics emerged when the Mac could run Windows apps (applications). First, the mean likelihood of purchasing a Mac rose dramatically—from 24.7 per cent to 44 per cent. Second, the percentage of Windows users who would definitely buy a Mac rose from 1.8 per cent to 13.5 per cent.” Pretty impressive.
Of course there are some good reasons not to buy a Mac. Like I said a few pages ago IU wants all their students to run ThinkPads. So if you are going to IU looks like it’s Lenovo for you. IU is not alone in pre-selecting a system for their students. So talk to your school and intended program of study and see what they say. As much as I want you to be able to run every program you possibly can, I also want you to have a reputation as someone who plays well with others.
But if you can pick any system you want and you see the wisdom of being able to run every application, drop by and check out the new Intel based Macs.
Things to Check Off Your First Semester
Take the library tour.
Time for another true story from The Adventures of Dean in Higher Education:
(read as if you were sitting around a campfire.)
It was the second semester of my students’ freshman year at a private liberal arts school. I asked them if they had ever had a tour of the school’s library. I thought it was a rhetorical question … but I was wrong! I’ve taught at Community Colleges where they make a point of making sure that incoming freshman have a library tour. So I took them the next week.
I know that the student union is a more hip place to be than the library, but the library has all the information systems. So in the first few weeks of your first or second semester ask to take the library tour. At some point on most of these tours, quite often it’s the whole tour, the librarian giving the tour will guide you through the use of the school’s databases. When you get to this point here’s a few questions to be sure and ask:
Which databases are connectable via the internet?
How do I log onto these systems?
Are any of these systems designed to interact with any bibliographic software?
The artist Picasso once said that every act of creation was first an act of destruction. The point being that every creative act tears up stuff that has been made and makes something new out if it. That’s why we go to the library to find out what people already know and use that knowledge to help us create new things. The library in that sense is one of the oldest and most powerful information systems. Get to know your library—it’s a wise investment of your time.
Find out your school’s network policies.
O.K. I know this school, I’ll just call it What Were You Thinking Community College that spent a ton to upgrade its email system so that every student could have an account. I know from solid sources some serious change was dropped on this project. But the students aren’t using it. Someone high up decided that since it was the school’s email and the faculty’s email was already a matter of public record the same would be true for students. Well it only took one student to actually read the network policy before word got out. So now the school has this expensive new email system and it’s hardly being used.
So understand your school’s network policy. It’s that document you sign to get your email. It will probably cover things like; Computer and Acceptable Use Policies, Copyrighted media, security, what can get your computer disconnected, etc. While you are learning about this, see what other accounts you can get. Your school may give you remote access to other systems as well as web and or FTP access. All stuff that can be handy if you know how to use it.
Do NOT use Wikipedia as a source.
The founder of Wikipedia is a man named Jimmy Wales. Every day he gets emails from students freaking out because they have received a bad grade—for using information from wikipedia.org. The thought he has when he receives such email is, and I quote: “For God sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.” Yeah, so stop that. You’ll get a bad grade and we have warned you.
Buy one program other than Microsoft Word.
Would you like an indicator of how with the times your school is? Take a look at their composition classes. All too often Composition II, ENG 102 or something like that is wasted teaching the MLA guidelines for the citation and documentation of the literary research paper. Now keep in mind I was an English major as an undergrad. So for me it did a bit of good. But if you’re not a Literature or Humanities major it’s sort of an empty experience. Now I am not saying that the critical thinking one can gain from literary analysis is a waste. The waste is learning a bunch of MLA citation rules that, most likely, you will never use again. Every area of study uses its own citation method. Even if you do learn MLA they change it every number of years.
If you buy one program besides MS Word your freshman year consider Citation, Endnote or Biblioscape. These are all programs that will manage all your bibliographic information for you. They take a bit to set up and you have to learn to use them, but once you get in the habit they will flawlessly cite your sources. Want to change from one method of citation to another? Click, click. Done. Are any of these programs iPod easy? No. But they just might be the thing for you.
Which one should you buy? I don’t know but the librarians at your school might. It’s a good thing to ask them on that tour I suggested you take. Ask them if the system the library has prefers one flavor of software over another. That would be a defining characteristic in my selecting this type of software.
Get an adult email address.
Yep. I am gonna bring this up again. It is easy but critical. Think about it. I get emails from addresses that may have been cute when the sender was 15, but they will not cut it for your adult professional life or your life in college. Go get an adult email address. The shorter your email address is the better.
Go get it now.
Do I need to remind you that this “adult” thing goes for your cell phone too — especially if you are giving the number out to faculty and staff at the school. You do not want these people calling you and getting a message like “What up Biatch? Leave a message.”
Someone’s watching your MySpace.
It’s true. It’s not just your top eight who are interested in the look of your MySpace/Facebook account. School officials are too. How come? I quote from a USA Today piece from 3.08.06. “Students post pictures of themselves holding cans of beer and bottles of liquor—even when they’re underage. They pose suggestively wearing little—sometimes no—clothing. Some appear to be smoking marijuana in bongs or joints, even holding firearms. They openly write nasty comments about each other or their teachers and coaches online.”
Ever hear about those kids who steal a video camera and then tape themselves committing other crimes. Eventually they get busted and the cops find the tape. That’s MySpace for some people. Oh, and it’s not just schools, I quote now from the New York Daily News 3.19.06:
Just ask 27-year-old Colleen Kluttz. Type the freelance television producer’s name into Google and the second item that comes up is her popular MySpace profile. This online social network has become an outpost for photographic and written self-expression, but it’s not always an asset in landing a job. “A friend of mine posted a picture of me on MySpace with my eyes half closed and a caption that suggests I’ve smoked something illegal,” says Kluttz. She is also pretty sure this post has cost her a few jobs.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not trashing MySpace or Facebook. In fact, I am on MySpace—myspace.com/hackingcollege. I use it to keep you—my readers—up to date on higher education trends. Go check it out. You should probably make your space look nice and safe like mine. The whole point of the web was to make that page you’re on accessible to billions of people. So don’t put anything there you don’t want recorded for all digital time. About now some of you are wishing you’d kept your shirt on for that photo huh? Remember, you are presenting yourself to the public not just your top eight.
Start learning the language.
One of the things that makes computers difficult for people is the language. You know all those tech words: http, usb, stmp, oss, j2e, G4. A conversation is not a lot of fun when you can’t understand a third of what is being said. So learn the language. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, like I said before, start asking people who know a little more than you to explain some of these things to you. Second, start reading up on technology a little. These three sites www.wired.com, www.slashdot.org and www.digg.com all cover technology trends and will help you begin to understand the conversation.
Let me give you a little life skills tip here. This is true with every academic subject. Once you understand the language you are half way to understanding the subject. These subjects are all what some people call discourse communities. That’s any group of people who have been having a long-term discussion and use insider language. Your family is a discourse community. Once you understand the terms being used you are halfway to understanding the conversation. So the next time you are sitting in a class that has nothing to do with your major know that you are there to learn to move between discourse communities.
Be like Santa! Make a list and check it twice.
First find out how many computer labs you have access to on campus. Then, visit each one, either in person or on the web, and find out what applications are installed on the systems in each lab. Once you know what’s on every system, make a list in order from those you most want to learn to those you least need to learn. Once you have this list just go to Google and put in the applications name followed by “tutorial.” Surf the results and bookmark the ones you like best. Now you are all set up to start learning how all these things work. You don’t have to do this all at once. Just try and spend at least an hour a week learning something. If you do this you will thank me at the end of the year.
The list at the end of the section
So here is the list of things I think you should know by the time you graduate. You should know how to do these things using either Windows Vista. OS X, or Linux. Which means you should know the basics of each operating system.
Install and uninstall programs
Burn a CD/DVD
Some basic Photoshop or GIMP
Make a presentation in Powerpoint/Keynote
Connect your laptop wirelessly to a network
Hook up a simple network
Hook up a printer
Connect your cell phone to your computer via Bluetooth
Make a simple webpage—your MySpace page does not count
Scan a document
Fax a document
Attach a file or files to an email
How to backup your system
