These studies are misleading. I would like to compare this data with a driver that is having a conversation with a person that is IN THE CAR WITH THEM. I suspect that in-car conversations are just as distracting as cell-conversations on a hands free setup...if not more distracting. Now, are we going to outlaw passengers?
This is pretty much spot on. Engineering is difficult, and does take a lot of initiative outside of class, but there are just inexcusable problems in many engineering programs:
1. Learning is not something to be survived. The grueling pace that some schools pride themselves in is only teaching students how to hate something they once loved. Proper work loads and allowing students time to absorb knowledge instead of cramming is the right path to creating good engineers.
2. Professors need to be more focused on teaching and less focused on research. I can't tell you how many "research" professors I had that had no business teaching. While many were brilliant in their field, they did not have the language skills to pass their knowledge on to others...and this is not just a problem with foreign professors...english speakers alike were unable to express ideas in their most basic form, give clear consise explanations, or evaluate students progress by the questions asked in class.
3. Engineering schools need to encourage their students, not frighten them. Having been in a class where a professor asked everyone to look to their left, and then to their right, and then say that two of the three of you would be gone by the end of the semester...I can tell you that this is NOT a motivator. Engineering is stressful enough without the threat of "weed out" classes hanging over your head.
4. Concepts first, then the math. Many times I was asked to "not worry" about the concept and just do the math...I would eventually "get it". Well, there are a lot of people that don't just "get it" without an overview of the concept being taught. Case-in-point: In senior level classes I still heard students answer with "because the equation states this is true" when asked to explain a solution. They still did not get that equations were a model for a system, and not an explanation of it...a model based on empirical evidence, then best-fit mapped to an equation and tested for accuracy. To many kids, "it follows the equation" was the depth of their understanding.
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These studies are misleading. I would like to compare this data with a driver that is having a conversation with a person that is IN THE CAR WITH THEM. I suspect that in-car conversations are just as distracting as cell-conversations on a hands free setup...if not more distracting. Now, are we going to outlaw passengers?
-h3dge
This is pretty much spot on. Engineering is difficult, and does take a lot of initiative outside of class, but there are just inexcusable problems in many engineering programs:
1. Learning is not something to be survived. The grueling pace that some schools pride themselves in is only teaching students how to hate something they once loved. Proper work loads and allowing students time to absorb knowledge instead of cramming is the right path to creating good engineers.
2. Professors need to be more focused on teaching and less focused on research. I can't tell you how many "research" professors I had that had no business teaching. While many were brilliant in their field, they did not have the language skills to pass their knowledge on to others...and this is not just a problem with foreign professors...english speakers alike were unable to express ideas in their most basic form, give clear consise explanations, or evaluate students progress by the questions asked in class.
3. Engineering schools need to encourage their students, not frighten them. Having been in a class where a professor asked everyone to look to their left, and then to their right, and then say that two of the three of you would be gone by the end of the semester...I can tell you that this is NOT a motivator. Engineering is stressful enough without the threat of "weed out" classes hanging over your head.
4. Concepts first, then the math. Many times I was asked to "not worry" about the concept and just do the math...I would eventually "get it". Well, there are a lot of people that don't just "get it" without an overview of the concept being taught. Case-in-point: In senior level classes I still heard students answer with "because the equation states this is true" when asked to explain a solution. They still did not get that equations were a model for a system, and not an explanation of it...a model based on empirical evidence, then best-fit mapped to an equation and tested for accuracy. To many kids, "it follows the equation" was the depth of their understanding.