Human/IT: The Importance of Liberal Arts Education | Jared Linder | TEDxBallStateUniversity
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, an IT leader and former liberal arts student, passionately advocates for the importance of humanities and liberal arts education alongside STEM. He draws parallels between the innovation of electric guitars and technology, emphasizing that while technology enhances tools, it doesn't replace the need for human creativity and understanding. The speaker shares his journey from studying music and literature to leading IT projects, highlighting the value of critical thinking and contextual knowledge in any industry. He encourages students to follow their passions, employers to recognize the potential in liberal arts graduates, and educators to create programs that bridge the gap between technology and humanities.
Takeaways
- 🎸 The speaker is a passionate guitar player who appreciates the blend of technology and musical instruments.
- 🤖 The guitar described has a battery-powered tuning machine on the back, showcasing a piece of technology that enhances the instrument without changing its essence.
- 🎵 The speaker emphasizes that technology, such as the electric guitar, is a tool that enhances music but does not replace the need for musicianship.
- 📚 The importance of humanities and liberal arts education is highlighted as it provides context and passion that can lead to innovative tools in various fields, including music.
- 💡 The speaker believes that the combination of technology and humanities leads to more useful and meaningful innovations.
- 🎓 The speaker's background in liberal arts has been instrumental in his successful career in IT, demonstrating the value of a broad educational foundation.
- 🛠️ The speaker advocates for a balance between STEM and liberal arts education, arguing that both are necessary for a well-rounded education and career.
- 👨🏫 A call to action for educators to create programs that combine humanities with technology, providing students with opportunities to excel in both areas.
- 👩💼 Employers are encouraged to seek out liberal arts graduates for their creativity, communication skills, and potential for future technical aptitude.
- 🌐 The speaker shares his personal journey from studying liberal arts to becoming a strategic IT thinker, illustrating the versatility of liberal arts education in the tech industry.
- 🎉 A final message to students to follow their passions, learn about context, and understand that there will always be opportunities to integrate technology into their chosen fields.
Q & A
What is the unique feature of the guitar mentioned in the script?
-The unique feature of the guitar mentioned in the script is a robot battery-powered tuning machine on the back, which can tune the guitar with a flick of a button.
How does the speaker describe the relationship between technology and the guitar?
-The speaker describes the relationship between technology and the guitar as a complementary one, where technology enhances the guitar without changing its essence or the need for a musician to play it.
What is the historical context of the electric guitar according to the script?
-The electric guitar was created in the mid-20th century to ensure that guitar players could be loud enough to be heard over drummers and horn players.
What does the speaker believe about the importance of humanities and liberal arts education?
-The speaker believes that humanities and liberal arts education are crucial as they provide context and passion, which are essential for creating tools that make music better and for approaching problem-solving in various industries.
How does the speaker's background in music and liberal arts relate to his current career in IT?
-The speaker's background in music and liberal arts has given him critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are applicable to his current role as a strategic IT thinker in a large government organization.
What does the speaker suggest about the role of technology in the future of IT leadership?
-The speaker suggests that humanities and liberal arts students are the next round of IT leadership, as they can combine their passion and contextual understanding with technology to drive innovation.
What advice does the speaker give to students regarding their career choices?
-The speaker advises students to follow their passions, do what they enjoy and are good at, and not to rush into technology. He emphasizes that critical thinking and contextual understanding are valuable regardless of the field.
What is the speaker's perspective on the importance of combining technical skills with liberal arts education?
-The speaker believes that combining technical skills with liberal arts education is essential for creating a well-rounded individual who can think critically and contextually, which is vital for innovation and leadership in various fields.
How does the speaker view the role of employers in nurturing talent from liberal arts backgrounds?
-The speaker views the role of employers as crucial in seeking out and finding the creative pipeline of people with liberal arts backgrounds, recognizing their potential for future technical aptitude and promise.
What does the speaker suggest educators should do to bridge the gap between students and employers?
-The speaker suggests that educators should create talent pipelines and mentor programs that involve creative students, providing them with opportunities and preparing them for careers that combine humanities with technology.
What is the speaker's final message to the audience regarding personal fulfillment and career paths?
-The speaker's final message is to encourage the audience to do what makes them happy, to pursue their passions, and to understand that there may be a place for them in IT and other fields that value both technical and liberal arts skills.
Outlines
🎸 The Fusion of Technology and Music
The speaker expresses a deep appreciation for the guitar as a unique instrument, highlighting its technological advancements such as the battery-powered tuning machine. They emphasize that while technology enhances the musical experience, it does not replace the need for musicianship. The speaker also reflects on the history of the electric guitar and its role in allowing musicians to be heard over other instruments. The importance of maintaining the spirit of the instrument and the musician's role is stressed, along with the idea that technology should support rather than overshadow the artistry involved in playing music.
🎓 Embracing Humanities in the Tech-Driven World
The speaker, an IT leader, shares their journey from studying liberal arts to becoming a strategic thinker in IT. They advocate for the importance of humanities and liberal arts education, arguing that these fields provide essential context and passion that can enhance technology. The speaker believes that the combination of technology and humanities leads to more meaningful innovations. They also discuss their career path, which began with a liberal arts background and evolved into a role in IT, demonstrating how critical thinking and problem-solving skills from the humanities can be applied to various industries, including technology.
🚀 Encouraging Passion and the Integration of Arts with Technology
The speaker addresses three groups: students, employers, and educators. They encourage students to pursue their passions and not to rush into technology fields but to understand that technology will always be there. They advise employers to value liberal arts graduates for their communication and creative abilities and to look for potential rather than immediate technical skills. Lastly, they call on educators to create opportunities that combine humanities with technology, forming talent pipelines that prepare students for careers that leverage both their artistic and technical skills. The speaker concludes by urging everyone to do what makes them happy and to consider how they can enhance their natural talents with technology.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Guitar
💡Technology
💡Musician
💡Electric Guitar
💡Innovation
💡Humanities
💡Liberal Arts
💡IT Leader
💡Strategic Thinker
💡STEM Education
💡Contextual Understanding
Highlights
The speaker is a guitar player who appreciates the beauty of the instrument and the joy of making music.
The guitar features a unique technology: a robot battery-powered tuning machine that can tune the guitar with a button press.
The technology is an enhancement to the instrument, not a replacement, preserving the spirit of the guitar.
Electric guitars are a relatively new technological advancement, created to ensure musicians could be heard over louder instruments.
Both technological innovations, like the electric guitar and automated tuner, have not changed the essence of being a musician.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of humanities and liberal arts education, providing context and passion for creating in arts.
The speaker, an IT leader, believes that humanities and liberal arts students are the future IT leaders.
The speaker's career started in IT without a background in the field, highlighting the transferable skills from liberal arts.
The speaker pursued a master's degree to gain technical knowledge while maintaining a liberal arts foundation.
The speaker's consulting work involves strategic thinking about IT problems, leveraging research and problem-solving skills.
The speaker encourages following one's passion and learning technology when necessary, rather than rushing into a tech field.
The importance of not losing sight of context when combining technology with humanities is stressed.
The speaker uses the example of digital assistants understanding human language nuances, showcasing linguistics' role in tech.
Employers are advised to look for the potential and promise in liberal arts graduates, not just immediate technical skills.
Educators are called upon to create programs that combine humanities with technology, preparing students for diverse careers.
The speaker concludes by encouraging everyone to do what makes them happy and to consider IT as a possible career path.
Transcripts
this is a beautiful instrument play this
guitar all the time I'm a guitar player
I love making music it's something I
really enjoy this this is a wonderfully
unique instrument that possesses a very
cool piece of technology that allows it
to do some things other guitars can too
and so what I'll show you is this guitar
has on the back of it
a robot battery-powered tuning machine
that with a flick of a button turns the
guitar now we're not going to sit here
and listen to this tune because quite
frankly that's the reason to have an
automated tuner but that technology is
bolted on to this piece of equipment
this musical piece of equipment it
doesn't replace it it doesn't change
what it can do in fact an electric
guitar is a relatively new technological
advancement anyway this was created mid
20th century if you can look that far
back to basically make sure the guitar
plower
players could be loud enough to be heard
over those surly drummers and horn
players that's what this is formed right
so relatively new in itself now what I
think's important about both of those
technological innovations is they've
never really changed the spirit of the
instrument it's still a guitar you still
have to be a musician and as cool as
this thing is and as much as I like it
I could play any guitar because I know
how to play guitar right not very well
which is why we're not doing that today
but the concept is it's it's novel and
that you still have to be a musician the
technology just enhances and amends what
you can do it takes away the the need to
tune and spend time on those things
which we all should know how to do in
the in the musical space and it lets you
get back to that mission which is
actually playing the instrument
engineers typically would build things
like electric instruments right
you've seen them keyboards computers
digital technology for music has come so
far the tools are amazing I cannot deny
that but I've never stood up for a
laptop solo alright I love listening the
guitar and so the element of the
humanity that exists in the combination
of technology and you know again a
musical instrument or the things that
make it's human I find very very strong
and dear to my heart we're not talking
about the singularity here this isn't a
Kurtz while argument anyway but I want
to point out that I think that that's
terribly important that something as
novel as a guitar possesses some
technology that can help it be a more
useful tool to its user so why is that
important I think this is exactly why we
need to encourage that we never abandon
humanities and liberal arts education in
the country and in the world humanities
and liberal arts provide context an
engineer build a keyboard a person with
a contextual understanding of music and
the passion for creating things in arts
comes up with a tool that makes music
better that's what I believe and I think
it's that context that we can never lose
sight of as we go out and think about
how do we solution things in the world I
I'm an IT leader so I'll talk about
myself for just a second I'll explain
why I think this is so important and why
I think humanities and liberal arts
students are the rock stars of the
future I think they're also the next
round of IT leadership in the world now
explain why I I've got a really cool job
I happen to be a strategic IT thinker
for a very large government organization
focusing on Health and Human Services so
we talked about big-time IT enterprise
systems that basically try to make sure
that people get health insurance people
get services they need and we do it all
statewide here in Indiana so I'm gonna
warn you none of those words or words I
studied in college
none of them IT government health care
Human Services what does that even mean
well now I know and the reason I know is
because I started out as a person that
studied music I studied art I studied
literature I loved reading I will never
not read like Latin basically liked all
the classes the cute girls were in right
I didn't do a real good job with the
science and the math but when I went
into college I continued to do English
creative writing English literature and
I wanted to write the Great American
Novel I think like lots of English
majors and so when I got out though they
weren't hiring for that job so I got a
job at the lowest rung at a really big
IT company timing was right the
universal lines and I started my career
out of college in the IT business and so
what happens is you get into an IT field
and somebody says hey you can write and
you go yes I can and they go hey you're
pretty good at talking to people and you
go you know it and then they say hey can
you go talk to those folks write down
what they want and let's build the
things of their dreams and you go oh
absolutely hear what they say next they
say what if you ran these teams and you
did all these projects and you helped
make all of this come true here you go
oh wow absolutely I can do all of those
things and the the thing that's really
great about that is I still don't know
if I know how to do any of those things
but but that ability to be able to craft
in any type of career in any type of
space the critical thinking and the
components that you can bring to any
industry with a liberal arts background
and a thinking person's background I
find to be critical now I don't really
want to make this about about me but to
talk a little bit about my career
basically after getting kind of the nods
on you know stepping up and taking the
reins in a few places I really decided I
did need to learn a little bit about
technology so I actually got a master's
degree in information and communication
sciences basically bolted that
technology onto this instrument right
and while I was here at Ball State I
actually learned how do you do
problem-solving about IT and research
around IT and how to look at big
challenges around IT the context is
different but the problem-solving is the
same the same methodology probably
applies in most industries so when I
left the University here I got into
consulting because I really wanted to
help people think through their problems
love the job and I ended up becoming
really what I do today which is a
strategic position or in a strategic
thinker about large IT problems how come
because I know how to research you know
how to problem-solve I know how to think
in context I know how to bolt something
on to a guitar instead of building you a
brand new keyboard okay
there's times and places for everything
and the context I think is that you can
learn how to how to apply to that space
so why is this important and what does
this really mean for everybody
well I think it really means that we all
have choices to make out there on what
we do for a living and where we go but
I'm here to tell you that I think you
need to follow your passion I think
there will be time to learn technology
there will be time to learn complicated
subjects I'm never going to tell you we
should do less STEM education I will
never tell you that I believe there's a
need for that
but I will also say I encourage us to
never then shift the balance to where we
are eliminating artistic education and
learning from our educational
institutions you owe it to yourself to
learn these things you owe it to
yourself
actually Oh what I think to society that
critical thinking is what you're all
capable of and what we are capable of
when you learn about context so again
why is that important how many of you
Siri or digital assistants or Alexis
things like that right okay
pretty cool tech right so let's talk
about specific example I love this one
the word bottle in English okay
pretty common word Bo TT le something
you drink out of you don't spell it that
way when you say it when you say it the
phonetic alphabet that would get drawn
out would probably remor resemble a D
than a team human language is a little
you're lazy bottle take say aspirated
note duh does not as humans were a
little lazy sorry to break that video so
phonetically you don't spell it that way
and so a linguist has to know that let's
say you're from England you probably
found spotl more like Bowl it's got a
glottal that's an entirely different
phonetic chain on the alphabet there
right but when you talk in weather it's
you me or no Gallagher somewhere in
England when you talk into that device
it knows how to make that happen
so sure there's a lot of Technology in
there there's army linguistics people
working on this how cool is that
linguistics saves in the day right so
that kind of concept of that that
amalgamation and that concatenation of
different types of subjects they pull
together to equal contextual
technological advancement is where I
think I want you to all leave here today
with the understanding you don't have to
go into technology you don't have to
pick one thing to do so I guess I'll say
it this way in summation I'd like to
address three groups students
you'll all be okay you don't have to
move so fast on say a field like
technology today do what is passionate
to you do what you're passionate about
do the things you enjoy and the things
are really good at technology will
always be there my technical chaps
change all the time the the field
changes all the time I think the ability
to contextualize say great short stories
and talk art at cocktail parties is
probably just as valuable again nobody
stands for laptop solos right so learn
learn how to find what you like to do
and study those things I'm a prime
example that I didn't study i tee out of
the gate I study the things I enjoyed
and I this profession found me hard work
and the right kind of luck and the right
kind of network and you'll do just fine
a second group with talk of employers
liberal arts people are rock stars man
they are super good at self they
communicate well they're pretty good at
writing they're usually you know
relatively agreeable I stay up late they
drink a lot of coffee and they don't
know that there are jobs like this out
there and so employers you must look for
and you must find that pipeline that
creative pipeline of people that are
really talented at things you have to
question as an employer are you looking
for technical capability and prowess
today or technical aptitude and promise
for the future I usually go for the
latter and I think as students again
that you need to remember that that you
need to work for that next job that that
person you want to be and third I think
I'll end on educators what I would ask I
guess of all of us educators is that we
string together those two populations
students and employers whether it's at
universities or at any other type of
level or we're creating basically talent
pipelines for creating programs that
involve creative students that give them
opportunities that they can find
employment in the field that's relevant
that combines both humanities and modern
enhancements and careers like technology
I think it's critical that we create
launch pads spring boards
and other types of talent and mentor
pipelines that allow students to be as
successful as possible when they don't
know what they're gonna be at 23 I had
no idea what I want to be at 23 I don't
really know what I want to be but but
this is a pretty good job this is a
pretty good place to be and I think that
encourage all of you to think about how
do you not lose the instrument but you
merely enhance it because we can bolt
the technology on I guarantee you so do
what makes you happy yeah
whatever your parents say do it do what
makes you happy
read a book learn to write study the
humanities but always think there may be
a job for you and IT thanks for having
me
[Applause]
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