It has become increasing clear that students no longer know what a photo copy is. They know about printing and scanning, but I have been asked more and more for instruction on how to scan pages and then immediately print them. They’ll say, “how do you use the scanner.” I start to show them the book scanner, and they will interject “where do the print-outs come out.” In other words, they want to make a photo copy. But they don’t even know the word. How do technologies that people still use and need leave the public consciousness? You would think that Xerox would have made it their company goal to make sure that the verb “to xerox” remains in the American vernacular. I guess that as we move increasingly to digital texts, multiple copies are printed, not copied. However, I would argue that much like the print book, photo copies will remain in use regardless if people remember their name.
