TITLE: Taking Courses Broad and Wide AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: October 30, 2015 4:35 PM DESC: ----- BODY: Nearly nine years ago, digital strategist Russell Davies visited the University of Oregon to work with students and faculty in the advertising program and wrote a blog entry about his stint there. Among his reflections on what the students should be doing and learning, he wrote:
We're heading for a multi-disciplinary world and that butts right up against a university business model. If I were preparing myself for my job right now I'd do classes in film editing, poetry, statistics, anthropology, business administration, copyright law, psychology, drama, the history of art, design, coffee appreciation, and a thousand other things. Colleges don't want you doing that, that destroys all their efficiencies, but it's what they're going to have to work out.
I give similar advice to prospective students of computer science: If they intend to take their CS degrees out into the world and make things for people, they will want to know a little bit about many different things. To maximize the possibilities of their careers, they need a strong foundation in CS and an understanding of all the things that shape how software and software-enhanced gadgets are imagined, made, marketed, sold, and used. Just this morning, a parent of a visiting high school student said, after hearing about all the computer science that students learn in our programs, "So, our son should probably drop his plans to minor in Spanish?" They got a lot more than a "no" out of me. I talked about the opportunities to engage with the growing population of Spanish-speaking Americans, even here in Iowa; the opportunities available to work for companies with international divisions; and how learning a foreign language can help students study and learn programming languages differently. I was even able to throw in a bit about grammars and the role they play in my compiler course this semester. I think the student will continue with his dream to study Spanish. I don't think that the omnivorous course of study that Davies outlines is at odds with the "efficiencies" of a university at all. It fits pretty well with a liberal arts education, which even of our B.S. students have time for. But it does call for some thinking ahead, planning to take courses from across campus that aren't already on some department's list of requirements. A good advisor can help with that. I'm guessing that computer science students and "creatives" are not the only ones who will benefit from seeking a multi-disciplinary education these days. Davies is right. All university graduates will live in a multi-disciplinary world. It's okay for them (and their parents) to be thinking about careers when they are in school. But they should prepare for a world in which general knowledge and competencies buoy up their disciplinary knowledge and help them adapt over time. -----