In today's Post-Gazette, Ted Roberts writes "If success in the 21st century is being defined by collaborative training that combines computer science/engineering skills with social sciences, languages, psychology and other disciplines, then IT is emerging as the "new" liberal arts. Just as traditional liberal arts education includes the study of theology, art, literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics and science, the new world view of Information Technology is evolving to include interdisciplinary skill sets."
In particular he argues that we should be teaching collaboration across geographies, immersion in new media, power of critical thinking, and a passion for citizenship.
It was not the list that I would have created, which is why I found it to be rather thought-provoking as we look towards what should be taught in our graduate and undergraduate curriculum.
See http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08176/892059-28.stm for the entire commentary.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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So, the issue becomes how we can draw on the strengths of our diverse faculty to create this interdisciplinary education and perspective. The RIGs are supposed to be one means to this end. The effort to do a SIS-wide 2000 course was to be another. Some experimental collaborative teaching ought to be another. There have been suggestions for collaborative research efforts, funded and otherwise, but these have been mixed. We have all the pieces sitting there, but I think it is up to us to become more creative in how we develop incentives to make this happen.
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