I sat in a three-hour long class today, browsing over random websites trying to seek valuable information and input for myself. I digress though. The class is supposed to teach students efficacy with computers, programming, and applied engineering concepts. The first half of the course will use Excel, and the second half will use Visual Basic. Both are tools which are not freely available and actually quite expensive in the latter case; tools that are built upon using proprietary formats and working with others leads to specific idiosyncrasies.

Why does the modern education system do this, even at the university level? Think about it. If you submitted the above purposely-vague course description in order to have a class formed, who would approve that mess? Who would want to take that class? A class that closes your mind and limits your exposure, the opposite of what you should be doing at this time; exposing your mind to tons of different random inputs, tools, methods, and opportunities in the world.

Furthermore, instead of learning how to adapt and use existing solutions and integrate them into your wonderful tool pouch, the students distantly type up examples from a non-existent space in a book and go home for the week. Going home and never again caring or wondering how technological tools can help them and challenge them to the point that it will change the way that they work, think, and solve problems.

When I worked in the summer of 2007 at a research firm in Maryland, I got to use any tool that I wished to solve an endless number of problems (my dream environment), as long as the results could be effectively communicated, shared, and built upon by all other participants in the problem. Of course, I had to use MS Word and Excel a couple of times, but I did not let that limit me. I must have gone through using over 50 different applications, many times on just a single problem. I used MATLAB, R, FORTRAN, Google Docs, Perl, Python, PHP, TextWrangler, SigmaPlot, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Linux, Mac OS X, GMail, Gimp, Photoshop, Illustrator, Applescript, shell scripts, Google Video, Google Code, Google Apps, Google Groups, CyberDuck, SmartFTP, SmartSVN, TeXShop, and tons of other tools, many of which were free and open source.

And that is not to say that I am an expert in any or all of those applications, but that I have the engineering ability (I use this in the traditional and broad lifelong sense of the word) to be able to know when to use a certain tool, how to fit it to my needs, and how to use it efficiently. Being able to pick up any tool for a job from cold and cater it to your needs is certainly a skill that will separate you from 90% of your peers in school, work, life, relationships, and personal progression.

That being said, how does one teach this skill to a class of engineering students who may or may not know that they want or need this dexterity and competence? Well, how does one learn the skill in the first place? I think that when a problem arises, any problem at all be it an assignment, a task, or a hobby, one starts to look for answers in places that he or she is formerly comfortable with. This usually means that they miss out on a well-structured Google search where the answer would have been right in front of them in this collaborative world, waiting for them to use it and mold it to their needs. But the students continue on, not aware of the opportunity and challenges that are waiting to enrich their daily lives.

“How do I insert the footer here?” “How do I log into the wireless?” “What formula will show today’s date?” Please, for the love of all that is spinal, use the help file, use Google, use your minds in this environment that is not only openly and excitedly available to you, but that you are paying about 500 dollars to be purposely surrounded by! If most of the time is spent adjusting margins and Excel specific commands and headers and print previews, where will the guts of learning and inspiration come from? I do not mean for this to be a generic rant, but rather a resounding and powerful call to these types of courses and professors to turn around and challenge the intellect of the student in solving problems and furthering their thinking capacity in life. Anyone can achieve this if they try and are provoked in just the right way that stimulates that certain passionate part of their mind.

For instance, consider a slightly disorganized and unformatted spreadsheet that effectively and elegantly solves a problem in which the student spent 3 hours on the solution and 5 minutes on the design. I would much like to see this sort of result and output rather than a spread of pretty colors and fonts that only serves to find the area of a circle - go and solve something real. Come on mentors, teachers, and those in charge of challenging us as humans: summon our great and collective minds!