• http://insidehighered.com/views/2005/12/29/blankenship

Laura Blankenship's (aka Geeky Mom ) recent piece "Technology as a Liberal Art " in InsideHigherEd.Com asks (and answers) two useful and interconnected questions: Are the effects of technology's integration into the liberal arts curriculum at odds with the fundamental mission and methods of liberal education? And what remains common to the liberal arts educational experience after the changes wrought by desktop computing and the web? In her view, technology has improved matters considerably. She points to two positive examples of how faculty are using technology in ways that are consistent with good liberal arts teaching (a chemist using podcasting and blogs, an English professor using audio commentary), and then has some fun describing the technology improvements made at her alma mater compared her experience as a student there fifteen years ago, when she had to do word processing on a VAX. One question did come to mind: who are the people on the other side of this debate? Where can we find people who are willing to go on record saying how technology is ruining the liberal arts? (This would be a good opportunity to use the commenting feature of Academic Commons fellow readers.)

Thanks to our friends and sponsors at the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College for the tip.