TLC Home Background Conversations Timeline Resources Vision Plan Site Map	Technology, Literacy & Culture is an interdisciplinary concentration in the College of Liberal Arts. The aim of the program is to allow students to explore a wide range of issues and ideas concerning the impact of information technology on human societies. Just as the introduction of printed books and radio transformed culture in the past, digital technologies are changing how we work, learn, and communicate with each other. The far-reaching effects of information technology are beginning to be studied by many of the departments in the Liberal Arts, and new research strategies are being developed. In Anthropology, History, Economics, Geography, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Sociology, and other fields, scholars are concerned with the enormous potential for cultural and political change brought about by new media and technologies. The TLC concentration provides students with a sophisticated and broadly focused understanding of the roles of information technology and society. They will also develop new forms of literacy in the media that these new technologies make possible. The two main objectives of the TLC concentration are: for students to develop an understanding of the role information technology plays in society, in the past, present, and future, and for students to become literate in new forms of digital communication, including hypertext authoring and the use of graphics, video, and sound. The interdisciplinary concentration in TLC places greater emphasis on the role information technology plays in human societies than on the technology itself. For example, students will consider issues such as the differential access people have to information, whether between the "First" and "Third World" or between socioeconomic classes in the United States. They will also investigate how expanded access to information changes the ways people understand their world. And, they will consider the ways in which various technologies shape information and its exchange. All fields of scholarship in the College of Liberal Arts are concerned to some degree with the social impact of new information technologies. The interdisciplinary concentration in Technology, Literacy, and Culture will give students the opportunity to explore a range of perspectives on this issue. The widespread growth of literacy has been one of the most pronounced trends in the 20th century. Changing forms of digital media in the 21st century will call for new forms of literacy, with a new emphasis in a Liberal Arts education. Students with a concentration in TLC will be in a good position to become leaders as information technology plays a growing role in the world.	"When I started graduate school - the first round - in '86, AI was the sexy thing to do, and everybody was trying to get into that. But for me it was just something we did in order to do philosophy, and to think about what humans were, and how we define ourself differently, our intellegence differently than machine intelligence. And, there was a whole wave of students at that time, who were trying to get into AI work, and Cognitive Science, and in fact, UT - part of the reason I got money to come here was - I was to be a cognitive scientist. The first semester, did all of those seminars, and realized - number one, that most of the students were doing it because they were intrigued, they were captivated by the technology. But, there wasn't within that group, much of a - much insight or concern for what that meant about humans. " Interview with Kevin Anderson   "I can tell you the biggest problem, I think, behind all of this, is the scarce resource - human attention. The fact is, people, I don't think, can take much more. It's like we're - people are actually and totally bamboozled by the ocean of information out there. And I don't know that they're going to swim in it any better than they are now - that's what I'm worried about. " Interview with Michael Benedikt   I think (I certainly hope) computer education is better developed now than it was then, but i think there's still a black spot with a number of educators as to exactly *why* it's important for kids to understand computers. i'd argue (not one of my more popular positions) that this is a fairly broad phenomenon. "are you online?" "no." "but you *have* to!" "but why?" "because everybody else is!". there's certainly a "we don't fully understand it, but we know it's important" rush over the past few years. for some people that's paid off; the corrent bubble of tech-business people, for instance. but i think there's definitely a segment of people who are waiting for something, wondering why they spent two thousand dollars to send mail with their friends. Interview with Darren Bauler
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