Have Students Changed How They Write Papers?

There is an interesting article in today’s edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education Daily Report (Paid Wall but many of you can probably get it through your library’s subscriptions and aggregators).
It’s a study by Rochester about how undergraduates write papers. There’s a big difference between what they’re studying and my old mindset and experience. I know many high school teachers have changed how they teach writing too.
I know of a a few libraries that employ anthropologists, socialists and ethnographic researchers. I think this is a positive trend. Then again I did my undergrad in anthro.
“An Anthropologist in the Library:
The U. of Rochester takes a close look at students in the stacks
By Scott Carlson
Put this story down for a moment and take a look at the undergraduates around your desk, outside your office, or out on the quad. Do you know what makes them tick? Where and how they study, the ways they spend each hour of the day, the steps they go through when writing their papers? Or are they enigmas?
Perhaps, to get some clues, you’ve read books about the so-called Net Generation, which brand them all as technophiles, gamers, and multitaskers. Or you might see them as younger versions of yourself during your college years — more plugged in, of course, but essentially the same.”
Stephen