Infomatics -- what does this mean????

[rachelm]

Hi all,

I'm supposed to be teaching an "Infomatics" class at a local university but have yet to discover what this entails. When I asked a local staff (I'm in Eurasia) all they could say was 'it's about computers'. Now, these students, I am positive, know 10,000 x more than I do about computers, so that can't be right. I know they can do word, excel, internet, so where to begin???

Any advice freely and gratefully accepted.

[marielle]

I'm supposed to be teaching an "Infomatics" class at a local university but have yet to discover what this entails.

Two interpretations: (1) Informatique is the word used in French as a direct translation for "computer science". (2) When used in English, it tends to refer to a broad notion of manipulation of information... not just by computers but also by humans. With that meaning in mind you are free to debate aspects of computer sciences, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, linguistics.

University of Edinburgh for instance has a very large department of Informatics: http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/