When it comes to inventing the university from 30 years ago in Bartholomae’s 1986 article “Inventing the University” we all should expect universities to make some changes in ways how professors structured and taught their classes, how students would change the way they learn by receiving and using different reading and writing materials in different ways as well how students communicate with each other and their professors in different ways.
As a student who had taken some classes at both J Sargeant Reynolds Community College and University of Richmond School of Professor & Continuing Studies I can say that the academic structure are different in a few ways. At JSRCC just about all of my writing assignments, projects, or essays had focused on mostly just the structure of the paper, such as the title, introduction, body, and conclusion of the topic that I am writing and researching on as well the spelling, grammar, and citations. At UR it is important to have all of those in your essay as well but some professors will also want to know the reason why you have chosen that topic, if it was interesting to you, and if you had came across something that you learned while doing the research. When it comes to the communities between JSRCC and UR School of Professor & Continuing Studies in my experience most of the students that I had taken classes with at Reynolds are younger students who either just came out of high school recently or a few years after high school, but there are some students who are in older age groups as well. While with UR in the School of Professor & Continuing Studies I will have classmates in many different age groups, more so of those who are in their mid-twenty’s or older.
As far when it comes to how universities invent themselves since 30 years ago the major thing that changed how the university operates in today’s world of 2016 is how technology advanced. Since the time Bartholomae wrote his article “Inventing the University” professors are able to use technology to teach their classes differently by using an online system, such as Blackboard, to upload files of their coursework for students to review for class as well having students to use their electronic devices to load the handouts instead of having to make copies for everyone. Students can use their electronic devices to type up their paperwork instead of writing on paper, worrying about their handwriting, and turning their work into their professors electronically from anywhere instead of having to come to class just to do that. If students need to communicate with their professors or guidance counselors for help they can do so immediately by using their electronic devices to send out an e-mail instead of having to meet them in person, getting things done much quicker. Students also have the option to use the Internet to conduct their research much quicker and easily compared to having physically go to the library. However, students must be careful when choosing their sources online as some of them aren’t reliable, as for using books found in the library students are less likely to pick up an unreliable book by mistake.
Even though technology plays a big role how the university reintegrates in today’s world from 30 years ago it is still important to consider if students are getting taught the skills needed to properly write out a scholarly paper. Even though Bartholomae was involved in several writing and reading projects and one of them is about “a project trying to derive a “grammar” of error in student writing, one that could be turned into software so that a computer could recognize patterns of error in an individual text” there are certain situations where even Microsoft Word won’t be able to point out to a student where he or she is making a grammatical error (Bartholomae, pg.10). Also when it comes down to typing an electronic paper professors need to make sure to teach their students how to properly format their electronic documents or papers. So in today’s world professors not only have to worry about teaching students how to properly write out a scholarly paper but they also have to make sure that their students are able to properly type up a scholarly electronic paper as well keep up with the latest technology trends that are and will become usable in universities.
