Gathering Around Change
Scott Hamlin adds his perspective to those of other planners on the NITLE Summit’s theme, “Advancing towards Liberal Arts 3.0.” Hamlin, a Summit planning group member this year and also a presenter in the digital humanities breakout session, is Director of Technology for Research and Instruction at Wheaton College. His thoughts:
Whether it’s a new epoch for liberal arts colleges or a soup that we are trying to perfect — I think there can be little doubt that “times they are a-changing” for liberal arts institutions. We are living through a time and in an environment with the potential both to disrupt and to transform the liberal arts college culture — a culture that traditionally includes things like high cost education, a residential four-year undergraduate experience, small student populations, low student-teacher ratios, a value placed on face-to-face, highly personalized interactions, etc. This kind of experience has to change, it seems, when pitted against tough economic times, social and professional interactions that are increasingly mediated through technology, and a trend toward decentralizing the way we access information and technological tools. Indeed, much has changed already.
The members of our classrooms are changing. We’ve been talking for years now about our students as digital natives — a generation who have grown up online, an environment that has shaped them, impacting how they learn and what they expect of library, information services, and (more broadly) their educational experience. It’s true that some characterizations of our students have led to false assumptions, gross generalizations, and oversimplifications, but I think the kernal of the idea is essentially correct. Our students have changed. Read the rest of this post »
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