An Apple for the teacher?

Dartmouth has long had a reputation as a school with a dedication to the humanities and more recently as pathfinder in the area of academic computing, but until this fall the link between the two was tenuous. The development of humanities-related computer applications has traditionally lagged behind the sciences and mathematics. Many humanities scholars believed there was no place for a computer within their particular fields. Others mistakenly perceived the computer as nothing more than an expensive typewriter.

With the hiring of David Bantz as the first Director of Humanities Computing, Dartmouth is working to rectify the situation. Bantz works under the dean of faculty, not for Kiewit Computation Center. That is an important distinction, as it his job to act as a liaison, consultant, planner, and problem solver for the campus humanists.

Just how far behind are the humanities in their adoption of computer systems? A strictly quantitative comparison is not really possible; however, during his first months on the job Bantz noticed that a number of buildings which house humanities departments, such as the Hopkins Center, Carpenter Hall, or Bartlett Hall (where, ironically, the Department of Humanities Computing resides), are not connected to the Kiewit Network. This means that resources such as the library's online catalog or electronic mail are not as easily available to these faculty members as they are to their students who live in dorms.

A primary purpose of Bantz's office is helping humanities scholars transform ideas into computer applications. He will also act as the humanities advocate on computer related-issues. Bantz, who understands the needs of humanities scholars, can translate the humanists' problems into concepts that programmers and computer administrators can understand.

The integration of computers into language instruction drills is an example of the kind of innovative idea Bantz will pursue. He expects computers and interactive video technology together will become the foundation for a new type of language lab. Unlike an audio language lab, interactive video will permit a student to "see" the result of a particular response. Since Dartmouth is a leader in both computation and language study, Bantz sees this as an exciting line of research for the College to investigate.