Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 19:17:09 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Natalie Maynor" <maynor%RA.MSSTATE.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Goodbye

> > Very well, I think.  I know of at least two upper-level English courses
> > here that have used e-mail:  Bibliography and Methods of Research
> > (grad students only) and Language and Culture (grad and upper-level
> > undergrad).  As far as I know, they've gotten along fine.
>
>      While I do not differ with your claim, was this their
> introduction to e-mail, or had they used before.  (This was the gist
> of what I was trying to say in the quote above.)

For almost all of them it was their introduction to e-mail.  My claim
is only that they seemed to get along fine.  I can't speak with great
knowledge since I wasn't there when they were doing it.  They weren't
my classes (although I know most of the students in those classes
because I've taught many of them in other courses, see the TAs around
the department, etc.).  If people in our department have problems
with e-mail, either problems of their own or problems with their
students, I almost always know about it -- because I'm almost always
asked to solve the problems.  In addition to the glory, being the
guru has its price. :-)  I don't mind being the e-mail guru.  That's
fun most of the time.  But I'm getting better at evasive action when
expected to know other things.  At least twice this week I've replied
to cries for help with a loud and clear "I don't know nothin bout no
printers!  I HATE printers!"  And that's true.  Why fool with printers
and the killing of trees when everything important can be done via
e-mail?

>      An alternative possibility is how the engineering students view
> the ENglish course in the first place.  I know at Mines the general
> attitude was that anything offered by the Humanities Department was a
> waste of time (except for the semester it offered a course in wine
> tasting). (Obvious pun deleted for Torkel's sake.)

That is definitely a possibility.

Since the mail seems to be slow right now and I'm into ramble mode, I'll
return to the question of my colleague's surprise.  When you stop and
think about it, why should engineering students be expected to take to
e-mail more skillfully, quickly, or whatever than humanities students?
Using e-mail does not require technical knowledge.  Look at me, for
example.  I'm as non-techie as you can get.  I panic when a stapler
runs out of staples because I'm afraid I won't be able to figure out
how to add staples to it.  I know zero about how computers work.
Electricity to me means flipping a switch and watching something
mysteriously start doing its thing.  Yet here I am holding the gold
in BWPdom.  Nothing I do at my computer requires knowledge of
anything technical.  The closest I've ever come to high-tech computer
adventures was swapping a couple of video cards and an internal modem
between two CompuAdd computers one time.  I've "put together" a good
many computers around the department.  By that, I mean I've taken the
monitor, cpu, keyboard, and cables out of the boxes (most of my
colleagues are scared to do that), I've stared at the cords and plugs,
and I've found likely looking receptacles for those plugs.  Voila!
Major hardware work accomplished.  I'm *soooo* good with electronic
equipment. :-)  My point is that engineering aptitude or knowledge is
in no way necessary for the kinds of computer activities many of us
are interested in -- especially e-mail.  I haven't the foggiest idea
how these words are going to zip through the phone line from my house
to campus, flop around in Ra, zoom across Alabama, and end up on
a computer in Georgia, much less how they're going to go from there
to various other computers all over the world.  As Carol (I think)
pointed out several days ago, thank goodness for people like Frank
Peters who understand how all this works and can keep it working --
except at UGA right now.  I certainly don't need to know how it
works in order to hog bandwidth.

Sorry!  This is *much* too long.  That's ok, though.  Probably only
Graham has read this far -- since he's a captive to the oddities of
his system for reading list mail.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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