Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

I was a bit shocked (and dismayed) that quite a few of my uni students seem to have no clues about;

sending email (in Japan, many people only send text-mails from their cellphones)

using a subject line in an email

realizing that you can send emails from other countries (yes, I am cruel, they had homework over our short holiday)

How tech savvy are your students? Any surprises?

Japan is supposed to still be a tech gadget lover's paradise, but you have to wonder...

[Sashadroogie]

Sounds kind of primitive out there, heh heh!

My students are whizzes with computers and all the rest. Can't verify this, but Russian hackers seem to be among the most... talented, if that's the word. Though, I must admit, I'm getting more than a touch impatient waiting for my contacts to crack the PlayStation 3 console.

[gaijinalways]

I think what was more surprising was that these are youngsters who have grown up in this Internet/PC area (majority born in 1991/1992), but for some of them their tech related knowledge is decidedly lacking. Now when it comes to making some video games, some Japanese programmers and houses are fairly good, as the video game systems were dominant here and still are to some extent (xbox is slowly making inroads).

Funny you should mention about hacking, this confirms and backs my point from a discussion earlier about education being only so good in that it has to be coupled with job creation (of course some people will make their own way, and that's fine, but not everyone wants to be in business for themselves). For some people in Eastern Europe, the job and start up opportunities were never created, and they found it more lucrative to hack than to make money as legitimate programmers and/or IT entrepreneurs.

[denise]

We get quite a range. Students are required to do exercises on Moodle, so at the beginning of the academic year we take our classes to the labs to get them signed up. There are some who have no clue what's going on and some who were clearly born into the age of technology. It's great to have a couple of them in class--they make great teachers' helpers! While I'm running around trying to make sure everyone has entered his/her password correctly, these tech-savvy guys get on the teacher's computer and help speed things up.

Most students seem to want to use the software that we've got (in addition to Moodle). They can all find their way around the internet--and if I'm not vigilant enough they'll invariably end up reading the latest football news or watching Akon videos--but as soon as I start up a new program, they all want to know how to use it. Their reaction delights me, because I tend to be a bit skeptical. I have to see a clear benefit to putting something on a computer, but for them the medium itself is interesting enough.

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[Sashadroogie]

[scot47]

Many of our students can use the computer but are completely unable to filter out rubbish they read from the useful stuff. Research skills ? ZERO !

[Glenski]

[gaijinalways]

[Sashadroogie]

This capitalistic linking of the quality of educational processes to the national economy is as tedious and as ideological as Marxist dogma.

[gaijinalways]

Yes it can be, but then again, how is communism working out there now? Even the Chinese finally decided to get in on the capitalism act! And now the Russians (wait, you mean I'm a millionaire/billionaire, so I must be a criminal..... ! Oh well, can't win them all.


Back on topic, I have students that didn't know what a blog was. Some didn't realize that Mixi is a social network that uses blogs, but some of my students don't use an online social network, and use the web only through i-mode pages (pages developed for cellphones), so I guess the PC era hasn't started ruling here yet.

Maybe we weren't born too late Sasha! Then again, a little built in job security, at least until the next time the media lab people highlight my IT ignorance.