Stephanie wrote, in reply to Frank... "You wonder how your students have become so much younger than you all of a sudden? :-)My students are about TWO decades younger than me and I am finding the same thing that you are finding. This semester I have five sections of students- about 125 students. In an informal poll last month I discovered that only about 1% know anything about usenets, discussion lists, etc. As you can see from the sig file, I am from the States. Most of my students are not internationals. What do you think is the reason for their lack of Internet savvy? I am perplexed." Frank, Stephanie, I have two teenage children, neither is allowed to use the internet at home although each has their own computer. There are numerous reasons why I wont and cant let them go for their lives online from home. At school they are allowed to use the internet, however there is a download limit for the year of something like 2MB, after which you pay, and its expensive so they ignore the school option. Recently I encouraged them to go to the library where they can get a free hour of internet access if they book in advance and they have started to do this about once a fortnight. My eldest son is in his last year of school. If he goes to uni next year he will have had no experience in the areas you mention - because it hasnt been easily available to him and many of his friends are in a similar situation. Should we, therefore, be surprised that those entering universities striaght from school have little or no experience online. It may not be out of lack of interest, but rather a lack of opportunity. Its also worth noting that nearly all of us didnt know anything about the internet at 18 years of age because it didnt exist, yet have had no trouble acquiring the skills and knowledge needed over the years. see ya Eero Tarik Adelaide