10 Technology Expectations

Expectations of a 21st Century Student

Studying at university in the 21st century means a lot of things. It means being able to study in an online environment. It means using technology, not just to participate, but to innovate. It means communicating and collaborating with your fellow students online. It means being able to learn new technologies and find information in the online world. And that is just to start!

It can be difficult for some students to have reliable access to everything they need to study effectively. It is, however, important for you to know what is expected of you as a student at university, so that you can achieve your goals and be successful.  It is best to check the specific requirements of your program before you set up your study space. However, let’s cover some of the basics that all universities will require you to have.

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  You will need equipment or access to equipment regularly and consistently. Owning, or having regular access to, a computer, tablet, laptop, or other device is essential.

• You will need network access, either at your home, via a mobile device, or regular access from a reliable, safe network.
• You will need to be able to access online study resources and set up your online study environment.
• You will need to participate in online learning, such as attending online classes, participating in online discussions, giving feedback, and submitting assessments online. You will also need to participate in social environments and make connections with other students online.

Through all of this, you will need to make sure you are safe, secure, and ethical online. You must observe online ethics around the sharing of information and maintaining privacy, and understand academic integrity, including online exams, cheating, and copyright requirements.

Digital Literacy Skills and Attributes

The types of skills and attributes you need to develop will depend on your field of study, your university requirements, and what stage of study you are undertaking. Research students, for example, will need to develop quite different skills from those just starting at university. Engineering or business students may need quite diverse kinds of skills in mathematics. Law students will need skills to access distinct types of information from most other students.

It is particularly important to see your development of digital literacy skills and attributes as a journey; you will develop skills throughout your study and again throughout your life. You must maintain digital literacy attitudes and develop skills and attributes to succeed in your online university life, as shown in the figure below.

Information in the Online World

We live in a world where we experience rapid technological change. This has produced numerous and diverse information choices in our academic, work, and personal lives. As a student, it is essential to have the skills to use the range of resources available in libraries, universities, and the internet. The ability to effectively locate, use, and evaluate information is known as information literacy.

Information literacy is more than knowing how to search the internet. An information-literate student can determine the information needs for study or assessment, find and access the needed information, evaluate the information and its sources critically, and use that information to accomplish their study goal. Information literacy is common to all disciplines and learning environments. Importantly, it comprises skills that not only foster successful learning but work readiness and effective citizenship. These skills include problem solving and critical thinking, finding information, forming opinions and evaluating sources.

Information literacy is part of lifelong learning, creation of new knowledge, personal empowerment, engagement in wider culture, innovation and enterprise. Digital literacy and information literacy are related through the technology that is used to access information. Both literacies are essential because of how we consume information and the amount of incoming information available to us.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Generative AI is relatively new for the general public as of this writing. However, it is changing day by day, minute by minute in its accuracy and its use. It is very important for college students to understand its uses and its limitations, as well as the ethics behind its use. While Generative AI is a great tool, it should be viewed as just that – a tool. It should not be used to give the answers in an effort to hurry through your work. In many cases, Generative AI is still unreliable and produces false information and resources. By using Geneartive AI to just “get the answers”, the learner is cheating themselves of valuable learning. However, by using AI as a tool to help in the process, they will be able to learn a great deal and have the confidence that their answers are accurate.

Consult the course syllabus for an AI Use Statement. If there is no statement, or if you are not certain your use is acceptable, talk with your professor. At the University of Arizona, some instructors allow a large amount of AI use, and others very little to none. It’s important to respect the instructors’ wishes and abide by their rules, or you may wind up in trouble through the University of Arizona’s Code of Academic Integrity.

If the use of Generative AI is acceptable in your course, there may still be gray areas. How much is too much? A good rule of thumb is to think of what you want to do with AI, then replace “AI” with “a friend” or “a tutor.” If you asked a friend or tutor to do what you are going to have AI do, would it be acceptable?

You could ask a friend to help you brainstorm ideas, but you shouldn’t ask a friend to tell you what your paper topic will be.

– You can ask a friend to help you come up with alternative keywords for your search, but you can’t ask a friend to do your research for you.

– You can ask a tutor to read over your paper and make suggestions, but you can’t ask a tutor to write or rewrite your paper for you.

If it would be ethical to have a friend’s help, it is probably ethical to use AI.^[1]

Many people think Chat GPT is the only thing people mean when discussing AI; however, Grammarly may be included as well. Certain extensions on Grammarly that completely rewrite your paper may be picked up as AI, and if your instructor is concerned about AI use, you should turn those extensions off.

Where permitted, using Generative AI to generate ideas, help you organize and plan projects/papers by creating an outline, help with research, and take virtual trips to faraway places. It’s also good for scheduling out your work, for career guidance, and can be used to explain a concept with an analogy using a subject with which a student is more familiar. For example, there could be a student who is having trouble understanding when to use a comma or a semicolon. If they love soccer, AI can explain the use of the two punctuations using a soccer analogy:

I’m a college student having trouble understanding when to use a comma or a semicolon. Can you explain the difference to me using a soccer analogy?^[2]

Other examples students have mentioned are that Google NotebookLM can turn class notes and lecture slides into study guides and podcasts, which a student can  listen to on the way to class or while riding the bus. Quizlet can make flashcards and ChatGPT can create mock exams and quizzes for studying. Using AI you can ask for alternative presentations of slides used in class and different ways to describe complex systems, which may clarify concepts more for you. AI can even help you develop a study plan to avoid procrastinating or spending too much time on any one assignment.^[3]

AI is not perfect. It still makes a lot of mistakes. Just as a CEO shouldn’t sign a check from her assistant without looking at it, you should not take something Generative AI says at face value. Once the CEO’s check has been cashed for a million dollars instead of the $10,000 she intended, it’s too late. And once you turn in a paper done with AI with bogus resources and mistakes, you will pay the price. Use AI wisely and conservatively and not as a substitute for your hard work and intellect.

Conclusion

In the modern world, it is very important to be digitally literate. Digital literacy encompasses the attitudes, attributes and skills with technology and digital environments that will help you study at university and to survive and thrive working and living the rest of your life.

As a university student, you must be able to engage with the technologies, environments and social networks that your university will expect you to use. Your university will help you to develop digital literacy as part of your work and study, and to build on those skills and attributes to the level required by your discipline and future employment. You must have core computing skills underpinning other attributes to study online, communicate and collaborate, be secure, safe and ethical, and to find and use information.