Are new digital technologies compatible with the aims and traditions of “liberal education?” Or do instructional technologies pose an inexorable threat to higher education understood as anything more than vocational training? For Jo Ellen Parker, the answers to these much debated questions are yes and yes; it all depends on how the aims and traditions of “liberal education” are understood. Her thoughtful essay examines the wide range of sometimes-conflicting definitions of a liberal education, and how these different views also affect the perception of instructional technolgoy. She writes, “...the discussion of technology and liberal education is entwined in debates about broader educational priorities and value...Faculty and administrators who express concern about the impact of technology on liberal education are sometimes dismissed by technologists and CIOs as simply resisting change or failing in imagination. However, campus resistance to new technologies is often a matter of defending perceived threats to important educational...commitments. "

Stephen Healey offers a “jeremiad” against the Internet—or does he?

Joe Ugoretz discusses how a new group of internet tools--Google, Wikis, Flickr and others included in the family of social software”--provide new methods of creating, sharing, categorizing, accessing and critiquing content, while lacking a central authority or a hierarchy of editorial control. Joe presents some suggestions “for how we, in the academic world, the college context, can use these tools to the advantage of our teaching and our students’ learning.”

Christopher Watts cannot quite decide how he feels about Second Life. But he thinks it has potential for liberal arts. Meanwhile, he strives to be cool as his avatar.

Spatial literacy is an important ingredient of a holistic education; however, ways of instilling spatial thinking into the curriculum through effective technologies remain unclear. GIS would seem to be a successful tool for increasing spatial literacy in our students, and Newcomb agrees. It can also be argued that another effective tool for nurturing spatial awareness is the use of tablet PCs combined with GIS software.