I-School Curricula: How Wide? How Deep?

Thompson, Richard A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/15073 Copy

Description

Title

I-School Curricula: How Wide? How Deep?

Author(s)

Thompson, Richard A.

Issue Date

2008-02-28

Keyword(s)

• Curriculum
• telecommunications

Abstract

The emerging discipline we call Information Science is shown to fit among its neighboring disciplines. After proposing any aca-demic discipline’s six levels of abstraction, and using them to define curricular “depth,” detailed investigation reveals that IS butts against different neighboring disciplines at different levels. Then, after proposing IS’ six sub-disciplines, they are shown not only to have different distributions across their levels of abstract-tion, but also to butt up against different neighboring disciplines. An I-School’s role as a “professional school” is factored into this discussion. Curricular “width” is defined as how close a curriculum should get to its near neighbors. Then, “holes” are identified in the spaces between the I-disciplines and their neighbors. These holes represent areas of human knowledge, which are typically ex-cluded from all the academic disciplines at most universities. It is argued here that I-Schools should strive to fill those holes by expanding their curricular width.

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/15073

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