Georgetown University

Interdisciplinary Education for Advanced Technology and International Public Policy

Purpose of the project:

Most educators would agree that informed public policy must be able to anticipate and respond to new technological advances. And future policy makers need to be sufficiently literate in science to grasp and discuss key scientific issues with technically trained personnel. The Georgetown project tried to integrate the study of advanced technology into interdisciplinary programs by informing students of international affairs and public policy about computers, robotics, telecommunications, aerospace and biotechnology. Specifically, the program staff designed new courses and modules for existing courses, as well as a series of public lectures, to inform non-specialists about advanced technology.

Innovative Features:

Innovation lay in the yoking of subject matters. In "Fundamentals of Advanced Technology," nuclear power, aerospace technology, biotechnology, telecommunications, and computer technology were examined for their impact on military policy, economic competition and trade negotiations. "Advanced Technology and International Business" focused on major policy issues facing government and international business in the application of advanced technologies.

Topics included such matters as pricing policy, research and development, intellectual property rights and transborder data flows, all considered in light of advances in electronics, telecommunications, aerospace technology and biotechnology. Lecture series titles included "Computers and International Relations," "Technological Change and Multilateral Trade Controls," and "Making Space Pay: International Cooperation and Competition."

Georgetown decided the time had come to teach the application of science as a subject matter in its own right, so that its students would gain a base knowledge in technology and suffer less technophobia. Project staff learned that the key to teaching advanced technology to social science students was to combine core science knowledge with ways different technologies actually worked, and then use timely examples of contemporary technology. Teaching technology would give students an applied science primer-a common preparation for their other program courses. Basic University science requirements determined the appropriate teaching level for these non-science students.

Evaluation:

The project was evaluated during its planning and implementation stages by an internal academic committee and a board of advisers to the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy. The internal committee subjected the courses to rigorous academic review in the developmental stage and later oversaw the integration of project results into ongoing curriculum.

Student evaluations and debriefings of selected students were employed to help evaluate new courses, course modules, and classroom materials, all of which received very favorable ratings. Attendance and subsequent involvement in project activities were used as measures of success for the public lecture series, as were institutional commitments to continue offering newly developed courses and modules.

Impact or Changes From Grant Activities:

The courses are offered each year as part of a new field of study, bringing new faculty resources and expanded class choices in technology to both undergraduate and graduate students. They have been approved for incorporation into the Foreign Service School's curriculum, and follow-up courses are envisioned for particular fields of advanced technology. In the words of the physicist who taught these courses, "Our social science students consistently outstripped the institution's expectations of them for learning technology."

Administrators were able to expand curricular offerings and open a new field of study through new courses, course modules, team-teaching, and course cross-listings. Grant activities gave faculty the time, resources, and scheduling flexibility to cross academic disciplines, while bringing in new adjunct faculty and identifying expert guest lecturers from the local community.

Institutional policies and procedures were not changed substantially by grant activities. However, procedural flexibility, particularly in the Foreign Service School and the Landegger Program, permitted an interdisciplinary cooperation needed for linking the fields of technology and international public policy, and for generating resources external to the University.

Social science students gained technical grounding in key advanced technologies in specially designed courses. For example, "Fundamentals of Advanced Technology" was sufficiently successful to warrant a core course in a new undergraduate major entitled Science, Technology and International Affairs. Other new and modified courses will form the basis of a business-related concentration within this new field of study.

What Activities Worked Unexpectedly?

The development of a collection of readings for the "Fundamentals of Advanced Technology" course provides a key resource aid for interdisciplinary teaching. The evolution of this material into a textbook is ongoing but originally unanticipated. Two class field trips to INTELSAT and the National Bureau of Standards' Robotics Center proved to be valuable features of one of the technology courses, despite some initial doubts during course planning.

What Activities Didn't Work?

Both the opportunities for and the practical difficulties of curricular innovations that rely on a combination of internal and external resources led to various project lessons. These difficulties should not be underestimated. A team-teaching approach in the first "Fundamentals of Advanced Technology" course worked well to provide teaching expertise across disciplines. However, since two or three on the team were adjunct faculty, it did not work well in providing course coherence or student access to teachers. Since the first offering, the course has been taught by a single faculty member.

Course materials proved to be even more of a problem than expected. Because there were no textbooks for this interdisciplinary area-which is characterized by rapid change-readings had to be drawn from a wide array of sources. Materials that met standards of timeliness, length and general readability were difficult to locate. Disparity in reading materials led to the unanticipated task of developing an integrated set of readings and teaching notes to improve class coherence.

What Do You Have to Send Others And How Do They Get It?

The project's final report to FIPSE and course syllabi are available from the project director:
Theodore H. Moran, Director
Karl F. Landegger Program in international Business and Diplomacy
School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
202-687-5854

These syllabi provide a unique resource base of reading materials not often assembled, combining international affairs and advanced technology. Materials have already been distributed through the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, and to other interested institutions.

Cost Efficiencies:

Cost efficiencies were achieved by close coordination of activities both within the administering Landegger Program and between the program and the Foreign Service School. A parallel project in international business diplomacy was designed with an advanced technology component, thus making the project's curricular products more widely useful.

Project coordination with the Foreign Service School led to an adjustment of the new courses so that they would fit within a new major field of study, thereby expanding the student population served by those courses. Finally, the project drew on business and community practitioners to supplement University expertise.

What Has Happened To The Program Since The Grant Ended?

The courses and modules created or modified by this project have been integrated into the ongoing curriculum of the Foreign Service School, and are offered each year or each semester. They are supported in part by the School and in part by corporate contributions to the Landegger Program. Follow up courses in particular technological areas are being explored to supplement the business offerings in the new field of Science, Technology and International Affairs.

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