cats < jaguars

Heaps of information on many topics can be found on the internet, thus making the internet a college student’s most valuable resource. People around the world rely on the internet daily; if you have a question or are curious about something it’s easy to get out your smart phone, tablet or laptop and search for your answer via the web. But what use is all of this information if it is inaccessible? This year (2012), Michigan Tech University has implemented a new wireless system, putting wireless routers throughout the buildings on campus including the dorms. Since implementing this new system, many students have been incapable of consistently accessing the internet using their preferred wireless devices.

In order to understand how this intermittent availability of access to the internet is problematic we must first define what access is. Access is the ability of one to properly use, preferably without interruption, what they wish (here, regarding wireless internet). Students at Michigan Tech have access to wireless internet throughout campus, available for use on any of their compatible devices. This access, however, does not always work as it should or even at all. Being a prominent technological university campus, this poses as a major problem for many students. Many classes require access to the internet, as assignments are posted online and a majority of class information is kept online as well. If students do not have wireless access, they cannot be expected to succeed in their studies.

Another problem with the poor access of wireless internet is that there are students who are not computer literate and/or do not have the technological fluency to resolve problems that may come up when trying to access the internet. Fluency, as described in Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC's Being   Fluent with Information Technology is,

“Generally, computer literacy has acquired a skills connotation, implying competency with a few of today is computer applications, such as word processing and email. Literacy is too modest a goal in the presence of rapid change, because it lacks the necessary staying power. As the technology changes by leaps and bounds, existing skills become antiquated and there is no migration path to new skills. . . . To adapt to changes in the technology . . . involves learning sufficient foundational material to enable one to acquire new skills independently after one is formal education is complete. This requirement of a deeper understanding than is implied by the rudimentary term computer literacy motivated the committee to adopt fluency as a term connoting a higher level of competency. (NRC, 1999, p. 2)”

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