Introduction
Interdisciplinarity is a word encompassing a vast meaning in many areas of the intellectual world or disciplines. In the context of learning and teaching; it simply implies combining two or more disciplines so as to provide a multi-disciplinary form of education with limited biasness leading to an integrated knowledge (Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, 2011). A good example can be a student’s project research.
Why is Interdisciplinarity important? Interdisciplinarity promotes an active and autonomous learning method or environment. For students and their educators, Interdisciplinarity can lead to the appreciation and understanding of other widely existing disciplines, challenging of the values and norms of those disciplines and even leading to the creation or discovery of new and multiple approaches of studying (Chandramohan & Fallows, 2009). Furthermore, interdisciplinary has lead to the adoption of new responsibilities and behaviors. They have proved to be consistent with the reality of the rapidly growing technological society that we are currently living.
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Technology and Science have encroached into all disciplines that are available for educational purposes thus making Interdisciplinary easy to achieve (Bonnel & Smith, 2010, p. 105). In a school environment, it can be achieved through the merging of two learning disciplines, for example, technology with sociology and anthropology (Information Technology merging with Social Science).
How has Technology helped support Interdisciplinarity? Technology has been included in most if not all disciplines. Education and learning as a whole has incorporated technology in their curriculum. For example, teachers and students no longer need to be within the same premise for teaching and learning to take place. Virtual campuses, virtual classes and E-learning have been introduced in the education sector enabling Interdisciplinarity to thrive. The very concept of E-learning and virtual learning environments like virtual campuses and classes would not be possible and successful without the inclusion of technology (Kwan, 2008). This is because the internet has been used to bridge the gap between the learning environments and the expanding world of technology (DiGiano, Goldman, & Chorost, 2013).
Examples of Interdisciplinarity are as diverse as the term Interdisciplinarity itself. They range from teaching, learning and healthcare to cross-professional teamwork. In cross-professionalism Interdisciplinarity will come in when tasks of shared responsibility, coordination and communication are to be achieved, as all of them encompass teaching and learning from different disciplines in order to achieve success and communication involving interaction plays a major role (Olofsson & Lindberg, 2012). In learning, Interdisciplinarity comes in when there is a merge between different disciplines e.g. IT and education disciplines. In healthcare, there is a bit of segregation as health students have limited opportunities to merge with the other students in other disciplines, but when possible a bit of cross-professionalism comes in e.g. nurses and doctors (Bossche, Gijselaers & Milter, 2011).
Some few on-going researches in Interdisciplinarity are in the following disciplines: Biometrics, which merges psychological and behavioral characteristics of human beings. Pharmacognetics merges knowledge on statistical genetics, bioinformatics, and pharmacology with clinical trials (in the health discipline). Computing for the humanities programs, by coming up with “humanities technology method” called MATRIX (Fernández, Fontecha & Almudena, 2006). Life sciences (Digital Evolution) have thrived through the availability of digital organisms. In the classroom when students use technology to conduct their researches and class presentations.
In conclusion, technology has played a major role in supporting Interdisciplinarity. In the education industry, learning and teaching has been greatly improved by use of technology (Veletsianos, 2010). For instance, computer aided classes have made subjects like mathematics easier to learn and understand, and sciences have become more interactive and much easier by use of computer simulators thus multiple technologies can now be implemented in a classroom situation making interdisciplinarity not too costly thus rewarding (Pérez, 2013).
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- Bossche, P. ., Gijselaers, W., & Milter, R. G. (2011). Building learning experiences in a changing world. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media.
- Chandramohan, B., & Fallows, S. J. (2009). Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
- DiGiano, C., Goldman, S., & Chorost, M. (2013). Educating Learning Technology Designers: Guiding and Inspiring Creators of Innovative Educational Tools. London: Routledge.
- Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound. (2011). A Different Approach to Teaching and Learning. Retrieved November 4, 2013, from Expeditionary Learning: http://elschools.org/
- Fernández, Fontecha & Almudena. (2006). The design of ICT materials for L2 teaching: state of the art. Asociación de Jóvenes Lingüistas.
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- Olofsson, A. D., & Lindberg, J. O. (2012). Informed design of educational technologies in higher education: Enhanced learning and teaching. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
- Pérez, C. M. L. (2013). Competency-based language teaching in higher education. Dordrecht: Springer.
- Veletsianos, G. (2010). Emerging technologies in distance education. Edmonton: AU Press.
