7 Dec
2000
7 Dec
'00
12:34 a.m.
When I was a grad student at Caltech I heard some professors offering
some similar worries as much as 10 years ago.... See the full article at
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2659964,00.html
An excerpt:
And then, someone shouted, "Let's put a computer
together with all this stuff!"
But could they? Could a handful of engineering
majors, circa 2000, actually make a computer out of
assorted parts?
It's a question that has professors tossing and
turning at night. It also has many of them rethinking
basic college curriculum, trying to prepare a new
breed of students for a new economy screaming
for high-tech talent.
Used to be, engineering majors would come to
college fresh from childhoods of tinkering with car
engines and taking apart and putting together
radios.
No more.
"Students have never taken a toaster oven apart,
certainly never built a radio," said Lynn Abbott,
associate professor of computer and electrical
engineering at Virginia Tech. "They've never
changed the oil in the car, never seem to have
gotten their hands dirty with how things work. That
has had an impact on how we have to teach the
courses."
Tim. (who was weaned on big bags of parts from Poly Paks, anxiously
ordered from ads in the back of _Radio-Electronics_...)