What bandwidth? It's all being used up by kids playing Counterstrike and leaving their Kazaa clients on "SuperNode." Barely any left for a kid trying to watch a video lecture.
A few comments. I'm a rising sophomore at MIT, and a first-time poster. I'm currently debating whether or not to hold off 6.002 a semester to take 6.002x for next fall's scheduling, so I figured I'd join in the discussion.
First of all, to those who are crying that MIT must have sucked for not having labs before this, the article was pretty skewed in that regard. Regular 6.002 has four mandatory, pretty thorough labs (if you skip even one of them, failure is assured) that explain the more basic aspects of EE. They're similar to the four required programming projects in MIT's intro CS class, 6.001. 6.002x isn't novel in that it uses labs - it's novel in that it focuses on applied EE, and occasionally gives Kirchoff a break to make kids inspired in their first course in a field they've probably waited their whole life to explore formally.
Secondly, I think this change is definitely for the better. A lot of students currently complain that 6.002 is way too boring and sucks the fun out of EE - it's important that an intro course occasionally steps back and looks at the big picture, showing how what they're learning really applies on the job. (The corresponding intro CS course, 6.001, does a fairly good job of that in discussing the fundamental nature of algorithms, particularly evaluators, in developing all programs throughout the course).
Lastly, this is a long line in a trend at MIT to offer different types of classes for different types of learning. One thing the article fails to mention is that this takes kids out of the 400+ person 6.002 lecture hall and puts them in a more intimate environment - that alone will make the labs more meaningful. MIT has tried similar projects with 8.01/2x, ESG and Concourse, all with great success - it's no surprise that MIT's largest department would get in on the act as well. Personally, I feel the change is long overdue.
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What bandwidth? It's all being used up by kids playing Counterstrike and leaving their Kazaa clients on "SuperNode." Barely any left for a kid trying to watch a video lecture.
A few comments. I'm a rising sophomore at MIT, and a first-time poster. I'm currently debating whether or not to hold off 6.002 a semester to take 6.002x for next fall's scheduling, so I figured I'd join in the discussion. First of all, to those who are crying that MIT must have sucked for not having labs before this, the article was pretty skewed in that regard. Regular 6.002 has four mandatory, pretty thorough labs (if you skip even one of them, failure is assured) that explain the more basic aspects of EE. They're similar to the four required programming projects in MIT's intro CS class, 6.001. 6.002x isn't novel in that it uses labs - it's novel in that it focuses on applied EE, and occasionally gives Kirchoff a break to make kids inspired in their first course in a field they've probably waited their whole life to explore formally. Secondly, I think this change is definitely for the better. A lot of students currently complain that 6.002 is way too boring and sucks the fun out of EE - it's important that an intro course occasionally steps back and looks at the big picture, showing how what they're learning really applies on the job. (The corresponding intro CS course, 6.001, does a fairly good job of that in discussing the fundamental nature of algorithms, particularly evaluators, in developing all programs throughout the course). Lastly, this is a long line in a trend at MIT to offer different types of classes for different types of learning. One thing the article fails to mention is that this takes kids out of the 400+ person 6.002 lecture hall and puts them in a more intimate environment - that alone will make the labs more meaningful. MIT has tried similar projects with 8.01/2x, ESG and Concourse, all with great success - it's no surprise that MIT's largest department would get in on the act as well. Personally, I feel the change is long overdue.