The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2002: §324d Home Papers/Indices prev (§324c) Next (§341)

Paper (refereed) Information Systems Curriculum

Recommended Citation: Russell, D L and M K Pelosi. An Integration of Liberal and Professional Learning: the Case of Constitutional History and Spreadsheet Date Arithmetic. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2002, v 19 (San Antonio): §324d. ISSN: 1542-7382.

An Integration of Liberal and Professional Learning: the Case of Constitutional History and Spreadsheet Date Arithmetic

Refereed

David L. Russell    [a1] [a2]
Quantitative Methods and Computer Information Systems Department, School of Business
Western New England College    [u1] [u2]
Springfield, Massachusetts, USA    [c1] [c2]

Marilyn K. Pelosi    [a1] [a2]
Quantitative Methods and Computer Information Systems Department, School of Business
Western New England College    [u1] [u2]
Springfield, Massachusetts, USA    [c1] [c2]

In an avoid to avoid the "silos" that often characterize higher education curricula, the authors propose a method of integrating the History and Information Systems curricula. Using the date arithmetic functionality of common spreadsheets, they analyze the pattern of ratification of two amendments to the U.S. Constitution that occurred since 1900. Then, an approximating algorithm is proposed for dates prior to 1900, as date arithmetic functionality does not exist prior to that date. Using the resulting data, further analysis is performed on three amendments proposed prior to 1900. These analyses are proposed not as substantive analysis of the topic but rather to demonstrate that the History curriculum (and, by extension, other Liberal Arts subjects) can benefit by integration the Information Systems technology and skills students learn elsewhere in their education.

Keywords: history curriculum, date arithmetic, spreadsheet

Read this refereed paper in Adobe Portable Document (PDF) format. (201 K bytes)
Preview this refereed paper in Plain Text (TXT) format. (31 K bytes)

CDpic
Comments and corrections to
webmaster@isedj.org