Digital Technology and Culture

A blog for students and friends of Washington State University Vancouver's Digital Technology and Culture Program

Careers and Globalization

I spent all day Friday at a College of Liberal Arts retreat. The main topic of conversation was developing a coherent, united voice on the purpose of and goals for Liberal Arts at WSU. I am telling you all this because one of the goals that was put forth focused on preparing students in information literacy for a global perspective. Questions were raised about what we could do to achieve such a goal.

I have some possible answers to that question, as those who know me may have guessed by now.

First, it seems to me that the main focus of DTC courses should not be on asking you to learn specific technologies but providing you, instead, with experience in creative problem-solving so that you can adapt to changing technology. There is an old saying that the only thing we can depend on is death, taxes, and roaches (okay, the last of these is a Texas addition). I would add to that saying "changing technology," because it is certain that there will be a new version or a better program the moment we master one. So teaching you how to think through technological conumdrums provides a broader perspective than, say, learning only to code in a specific language.

Second, it seems to me that another important thing we have to do in educating you is to broaden your vision of the world and to make you world citizens as well as Vancouver, WA ones. To do that, we need to expose you to new ideas not necessarily local ones--and to ask you to engage with those ideas, perhaps, in ways alien to your own. What I am hinting at is this: The way to expand your horizons--and ultimately your career potential--is to learn other languages, and I don't mean Java:) It really helps to learn Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian--you know, natural languages.

You have to ask yourselves why American companies have been so successful in moving high tech businesses off American soil. Do you think they could have if folks in foreign countries did not speak English? Do you know, for example, how many languages taxi drivers in Singapore speak? The ten or so drivers I rode with spoke upwards of six. These are men who did not go to college. You, who are spending a lot of money in tuition so that one day you can land a white collar, high-paying tech job, may be squirming over learning one. How many languages do you think college-educated Singaporeans speak? How many do educated Americans speak? The disparity is literally killing us.

Even avoiding discussions about understanding other cultures by understanding them in their native language, you cannot deny that, truly, we can't afford that luxury anymore.

The bottom line is that you need to learn to work in multiple contexts with multiple understandings. So, information literacy and foreign languages. Those are the keys to your future. To anyone's future. Amen.

--Dene

posted by: grigar at 23:00 | link | comments (5) |

Comments:

#1  26 September 2006 - 12:18

 

A "make a little trouble" experiment proposal: For one day at the DTC department only Spanish (no spinglish or mexlish or code switching) can be spoken. Audio record the whole day and have a seminar about what happens.

Anonymous

#2  26 September 2006 - 15:46

 

Sonds interesting, but perhaps you can explain what positive things we can gain from it. I can see a lot of not so positive ones.

Learning a foreign language should not be a punishment. It is not seen that way abroad. Instead, it is seen as an enhancement. A way to be more successful in business.

Dene

grigar

#3  28 September 2006 - 05:39

 

LMAO!! You pay too much attention to what RTMark is doing right now and we'll never get anything accomplished. We are supposed to be learning not creating art. I dig the idea, don't get me wrong, but I'm not sure the classroom setting is the right venue for a protest.

Anonymous

#4  28 September 2006 - 13:53

 

Oh my goodness. Do you thinking learning and creating are separate enterprises in the process of knowledge-making? If so, then the teaching methods that tout that "students learn best by doing" is all wrong, and I should simply lecture to you each class day.

The fact of the matter is that the artist is not protesting but rather agitating for action--where there has been little. But it is not just the content of his work that I find compelling; it is also his aesthetic, approach, his art form, and his passion. These should be looked at and critiqued from an *intellectual standpoint* instead of being swatted aside as "not our business."

Concentration 3 of the DTC is indeed cultural critique (Re: "Culture and Technology). So, it is the very business of students to learn to talk about art, even if they themselves never seek to be an artist themselves.

When you are ready to engage in an intellectual discussion about this piece as art, I am ready.

Dene

grigar

#5  29 September 2006 - 07:46

 

Ouch! That hurt. I wasn't trying to bash the comment. I actually thought it was a really good idea. In all honesty it might be a good idea to do it. It is definately our business to try to incite change. I did not mean to come off as against the idea.

I am highly opposed to the banking concept of education which I feel runs rife in America, which is part of the problem with why we are probably one of the few nations left in the world whose students entering high school can only marginally speak their native tongue.

The concept is an excellent way in which the student in the DTC Program could address the subject of being uni-lingual. My initial response was due in part to the difficulty with which running a simulation like this, and secondly because the real problem lies with the education at the K-12 level, where in high school --which is for many students, is the first time they are offered a foreign language -- the offered language choices are predominantly Romance languages, when the prevailing trend gravitates toward Slavic and Asian languages.

funktifyknow

Comments: