Experience teaches us that writing allows us to clarify our thinking, to work out what it is that we really want to say. However, it is a tool whose use is not necessarily easy to master. Those of us, who have persisted, also know the satisfaction that comes from knowing when we have produced a good piece of writing. Some of us are acquainted with the joy and encouragement that comes from seeing an article that we have written in print in a journal. At the same time we recognize that to have that experience, we have engaged in much deep thinking and have learnt much through the process of developing and writing that article, and from the process of peer review. We know how writing, and its twin sibling reading, moves us forward, how it helps us to build our own new knowledge.
Yet as I peruse the academic literature of Business and Informatics, I rarely come across articles that were written by students, either undergraduate or postgraduate or that will engage students, particularly undergraduate students, in Business and Informatics. This is not surprising as the journals and their articles are aimed at a different audience, the already qualified and experienced academic and professional. However it seems to me that the future of Business and Informatics at both universities and in the workplace depends upon the ability of tomorrow’s professionals to engage in, and to learn to enjoy, deep thinking about their chosen field. Traditionally, both writing for, and reading the literature have stimulated such deep thinking and intellectual enjoyment. Yet, until Carpé Diem, the audience for student writing has been their assessors: students write for marks. The authors of articles in this and previous editions of Carpé Diem have provided exemplars of how undergraduate and postgraduate students can, and do, engage critically with the “stuff” of their learning. This engagement and passion is critical and must be encouraged - after all it is these professionals-in-training who will shape the future!
The team that oversees Carpé Diem can deservedly take pride in what they have achieved through Carpé Diem and how they, as educators, are challenging our students, the professionals of tomorrow, to take that extra step, to engage in deep thinking and write with a view to sharing their thinking with their peers and the wider academic community through publishing their work. As you read this third edition of Carpé Diem, I invite you to engage in an intellectual conversation with these young thinkers about the issues they raise about their chosen careers.
Dr. Alanah Kazlauskas
Australian Catholic University
Institute of Business & Informatics (NSW) |
