Six credit hours, eight professors and class five days a week is not the typical course description at Auburn. However, the Honors Interdisciplinary Symposium on Technology and Culture boasts some of the best and brightest of Auburn's nearly 25,000 students.
The course covers the development of technology and its intersection with culture from the beginning of time to the present day.
The class meets for plenary sessions Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while on Tuesday and Thursday, the class breaks into smaller discussion groups of about 15 students, guided by two professors.
The course is taught by a rotation of professors from different disciplines and areas of study. Professors from communication and journalism, industrial design, sociology and education, among others, have teamed up to teach the course.
"This is arguably the most unique course on campus," said James Hansen, history professor and director of the Honors College.
Hansen said the decision was made to offer the course for six hours credit instead of the standard three because there was too much to talk about.
Hansen said Auburn even hired two teaching, postdoctoral fellows specifically for the course, marking the first time the University has had postdoctoral faculty for any reason besides research.
"One discipline can't solve all the problems there are in the world," Hansen said. "We want students to start to think in multi-discipline and interdisciplinary ways now, at the undergraduate level."
Class discussions range from what the students' personal expectations were for the course to how technology itself can be defined.
Students were raising a variety of questions and topics, constantly taking the subject matter to the next level. Professors and students alike knew the issues they were discussing often don't have a right or wrong answer, but the discussion is still important. Hansen said technology helps to teach the course, as some lectures will be given to the class through Skype or podcasts.
"I like that there's more than one teacher," said Taryn Greene, a freshman who is undecided in engineering. "It keeps it interesting."
Greene said the class took up a lot of space on her schedule, but it fulfills six of her required honors credits.
"I chose to take the course because it seemed like a more interesting way to study history than was offered in high school," Greene said. "I think studying technology in this way is important because it allows you to see where we've come from and where we're going."
Hansen said he hopes this course will open the possibility of similar interdisciplinary courses in coming years.
"I think the interdisciplinary approach to this class shows just how important technology in culture really is," said Bill Trimble, professor of history. "The use of several different disciplines actually helps us to transcend history."
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