The millennials: Computer savvy (or not?)

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Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 28: Higher education in a changing world

July, 2005, 639 pages
Published by
Angela Brew and Christine Asmar
ISBN
0 908557 62 0
Abstract 

This paper describes a study of age difference in the computer skills, practices and attitudes of business students enrolled in the Batchelor of Business degree (BBus) and the New Zealand Diploma in Business (NZDipBus) at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Previous studies have indicated that students are becoming more computer literate. The Millennial Students, (or the digital generation) those students who were born after 1983 are now entering tertiary study. Are these students more computer literate than their older peers? The main aim of this study was to determine students’ access to computers, what software applications students have access to and use, and how confident students feel using computers. Most importantly this study investigated students’ actual knowledge of the Internet, e-mail, word-processing, spreadsheets and databases to see if the variance in computer literacy among tertiary students as a whole was diminishing and in particular, between age groups.

Keywords: age, entry level computing skills, computer literacy