A New Liberal Art

I found a great post yesterday. Jim Heynderickx writes about a Computer Science K-12 session at the PNAIS TechShare . One of his comments really resonates with me.

What’s missing is basically a new liberal art– that of algorithms, symbolic reasoning, logic and programming experience. Math departments will acknowledge the importance of these “ways of thinking,” but normally these experiences are not part of their curriculum. With this experience, students can see and use computers in much more relaxed and sophisticated ways.

And maybe we need to think of Computer Science fitting in with the Liberal Arts. Maybe it is that affiliation with hard science that is scaring a lot of teachers and students away from it. But clearly, to me at least, we need to start thinking about getting more ways of thinking taught to students. I also agree with Jim that having a better understanding of the way computers work (and maybe that means a bit of hardware as well as software knowledge) is going to help students and adults be a lot more innovative and successful in the way they use computers and computer applications.

One doesn’t have to know a lot about how engines work to drive a car. Or how the suspension works to get a driver’s license. But that is all about the very basic way in which one uses a car. Someone who really wants to get the most out of their car has to know a lot more than what is required for the license test. And that is where we are getting with computers. The low level understanding most people have is not enough for the future. We need to educate students to a higher level or understanding and innovation. Adding some real computer science to the curriculum may be a huge step forward.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 15, 2006
  That's inspiring.  I dream of finding multiple ways of introducing appreciation for computation and computer science into liberal arts education.  Also, making computation accessible to anyone, as far as they are willing to carry it, is a theme of my life.
  
  Thanks.