This never would have happened with a typewriter. I was wrappingup my column this week when the power went out in my apartment. Thecomputer monitor turned black and I lost the last 15 minutes of mywork. Technology is such a hassle!

School children in the past were forced to claim the dog atetheir homework. Now they can place blame on the technology. Butdon’t try that at Sacramento State. Your excuses and pleaswill fall on deaf ears.

We were not always dependent on the marvels of modernelectronics. The answers to our questions did not reside somewhereon the internet.

There was a time when people had to flip through drawer afterdrawer in the card catalogue, then browse the stacks, find thebook, and read the table of contents before finally arriving at theinformation sought.

On a regular basis students complain about research papers duenext week. Twenty years ago waiting until a week before deadline tostart research would have been disastrous?

There were no searchable databases to browse through. Printingout or electronically copying articles was not possible. Researchhad to be done by hand, long in advance. Only then could theinformation be retyped and included in a paper

Technological innovations in academia first were used as toolsto supplement learning in the classroom. For instance, studentslearning math had to first know how to use long division to solvecertain equations. Only after the basics were mastered would,portions of a problem too difficult or time consuming to solve byhand, be referred to a calculator.

However, it seems that now people in this tech savvy culture gostraight to the calculator to solve all of their math problems.

Americans don’t just reach for the calculator. Accordingto various studies, anywhere from 33 to 50 percent of householdshave their own personal computer. Add to this the massive amount ofaccess in schools, libraries and internet cafes among others.

Teaching cursive in elementary school doesn’t seemnecessary anymore.

We as a society, and especially as students, have become far tooreliant on technology. Most students could not conceive of writinga paper on an actual sheet of paper. We used to do it that way whenI was in elementary school. Computers were scarce and”internet” connections ran at about 15 bits per second,if your school had access.

The lightning fast development of technology now allows studentsto start researching and writing a midterm merely a week, or evenjust days, in before it’s due. This is an indication thatstudents are using computers as a crutch rather than a usefultool.

That’s a grave mistake.

When you can’t print, access your e-mail account or thepower goes out and your column is lost forever, the real world doesnot stop. The level of frustration with which some people react tocomputer failure seems to have equaled the frustration thataccompanies automotive problems.

Bicyclists don’t need to worry about a blown gasket. Inthe same way students who use technology as a helpful tool and nota crutch need not stress about a computer crashing.

Dependence on technology may also have a detrimental effect onour education in the classroom. More often teachers at Sac Stateare utilizing “smart classrooms” by basing theirlectures on power point presentations. Sometimes difficulties arisethat halt the use of the prepared lecture aid.

In most instances, all the visual aids and precise details areon the computer. If the smart classroom cannot properly displaythese materials, our education has been hampered. Some professorsrely so heavily on their high-tech setup that his or her lecturemight even be halted.

So why don’t we all pick up a pencil once in a while? Theyhave erasers for editing.

Or get to know the library lay out. That way you could find thegeneral areas where your resources are hiding or at least find outwhat a book is.

Should we send Ryan’s column back to the Stone Age?

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