The other day someone asked me what this blog was all about. The description in the heading gives the general range of coverage, but for those of you who have been here before know my recurring themes. Here is just a quick summary for some of you who are new to this blog.
Low Enrollment Problem
This has been going on for years for multiple reasons that are too complex to summarize here. Dig through the blog for lots on info on this subject. But in general, enrollments in electronics technology in 2-year community colleges have been on the down swing for years. Many of you are still suffering with this problem and some of you actually had your departments closed, downsized or merged simply for lack of students. This problem continues although in some parts of the country there are signs of recovery. As I keep saying, this is more of a local problem than a national problem, but the trend is cerainly national in scope.
Despite the low enrollments, the jobs for technicians are still out there. In their annual report, the American Electronics Association (AeA) indicated plenty of tech jobs and many that go unfilled simply there are not enough engineers and technicians are being graduated. And these jobs pay significantly better than the average job today. We just can't seem to interest young people to learn electronics. No one seems to know why.
Anyway, I am happy to report that at the school where I teach as an adjunct, enrollments are up after four seriously distraous years of declines and cut backs. The department worked hard to revise and update the curriculum and add new majors such as biomed and electrical power. I see signs here and there that some programs are coming back as enrollments gradually turn around.
Just keep working to update courses and curricula to reflect the jobs available today and work with local industry. And do try to promote the programs by whatever means.
Textbooks
The main publishers McGraw Hill, Delmar and Prentice Hall produce very high quality texts but they are still dated. The NSF grant I helped win a few years back was awarded based on that fact. To help solve the problem, which the publishers seem unwilling to address, we developed 25 online tutorials on topics that are relevent today but that are not covered in textbooks or receive mininal or dated coverage. This program has been a huge success as it provides the latest material that instructors can use supplement the dated texts.
The problem actually lies less with the publishers and more with the authors and those who adopt a book. Instructors tend to lack current industry experience and up to date technical knowledge. Yet these are the people who write the books. No wonder the books are dated.
Unlike most authors, I work in industry and keep right on top on all the latest developments as well as what is current and relevant and what is not. I wish we could get more industry people to write the books but I don't see that happening.
What publishers could do is get industry input through a panel of experts or at least reviewers who can say what is hot and what is not.
Publishers are still reluctant to change too drastically as all the older instructors want to keep teaching the material they are familiar with but may not be relevant today. I have been told by my publisher that I could not take out the old and dated material simply because the reviewers say they want it. Boy, what a problem. And the publishers, wanting to sell their books, do what their customers say, keep the old and dated and leave out the new and relevant stuff. I only hope you instructors reading this will reconsider. You need the books to be as up to date as possible. Give in to change and constant new developments that are an inherent part of electronics.
Teach Techs to Be Techs
So many, if not most instructors have EE degrees. Few actually have Technology degrees which I have come to believe are far better suited to teaching in a technology program. EE degreed instructors tend to teach what they learned in college which is engineering. Engineers analyze and design. But Techs do not. Yet, that is the way most instructors want to teach the subject. Furthermore, most instructors have never even worked as a technician. How can they really know what it is like? And certainly how it has changed so drastically over the years.
The curriculum, books and courses need to be reoriented to teach techs and about the jobs they do today. Engineering tech jobs have all but gone away and it is rediculious to keep teaching subjects that were irrelevant even a few years ago. I urge you all to go out and find out what the tech jobs are today and figure out just what you need to teach. Some of what you teach now is still valid but so much of it is not. You need to teach more systems and less circuits level material. Less math analysis and design and more practical testing, measuring and troubleshooting. And that is not what most of you guys want to hear.
You can find out more detail on all of the topics I listed here by just browsing the proeious entries and the responses.
And please feel free to chime right in here if you agree or disagree.
Thanks for listening.
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