{"id":27,"date":"2012-09-12T03:43:07","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T03:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.drablab.org\/?p=27"},"modified":"2012-09-15T04:12:15","modified_gmt":"2012-09-15T04:12:15","slug":"computing-as-a-liberal-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.drablab.org\/?p=27","title":{"rendered":"Computing is a Liberal Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \u201c… the computer is being used to program the child. In my vision,
\n the child programs the computer and in doing so, both acquires a
\n sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful
\n technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the
\n deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of
\n intellectual model building\u201d<\/p>\n

— Seymour Papert in “Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Computing is a Liberal Art<\/em><\/strong> is my personal blog on computing, robotics, liberal arts education, and various other things. Why?<\/b> Students studying the liberal arts and sciences need lucrative, creative career opportunities. The tech industry needs a more diverse, creative work force. Moreover, it is imperative that all citizens have a role in shaping tomorrow\u2019s technology, not just the technologists — assuring all citizens are programming rather than being programmed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As computation plays a larger role in our professional, personal, and civic lives, thinking and communicating algorithmically has become as important as literacy in any other sense. And although being skilled at a particular computer application is often a prerequisite, it isn’t the whole story. As Papert (a mathematician, computer scientist, and student of Piaget) remarked concerning the potential of computing, \u201ca revolution in ideas that is no more reducible to technologies than physics and molecular biology are reducible to the technological tools used in the laboratories or poetry to the printing press.\u201d Being truly computationally literate means one can begin to think using the symbols and ideas of computation to solve problems or make art in new ways.<\/p>\n

Some related takes on computing & the liberal arts:<\/p>\n