Engineering the Future

By Bill Holden, Development Specialist
bholden@pitsco.com

In today’s vernacular, everything is condensed to an “app,” which for old geezers like me, is short for an application. But not everything can be funneled into an app – some manual tasks that need to be done are not applicable (pun intended) to a software/hardware solution.

By its nature, hands on has a building connotation – constructing complex things from simple materials. And not just drag and drop on a computer screen; we at Pitsco Education mean real construction. Simulations are fine and have their place, but at some point, it comes down to doing the real thing.

Please allow me to illustrate the point. Diabetics simulate an insulin injection by giving an orange a shot. Even though this is a hands-on simulation (you really are giving an injection, it is just an injection into a poor, unsuspecting orange), it eventually comes down to having to inject yourself. Believe me, it is different.

Nurses giving shots, doctors doing surgery (and yes, I know that there are now robotic surgeons that operate from hundreds of miles away via tele-op connections), mechanics working on jet engines, carpenters swinging hammers, woodsmen sawing firewood, engineers constructing bridges – all are hands-on activities, not simulations.

For example, bridge-building simulations are great and can help students learn about bridge design. However, they are not a substitute for the hands-on experience of cutting balsa sticks at exact lengths and angles and gluing them together to make a physical model bridge. And the same can be said for just about anything in the realm of hands on – the simulation of dissecting a frog pales in comparison to actually using a scalpel and forceps to tear into it. Folding a paper airplane on-screen and doing a simulated launch is a far cry from the physical experience of folding and flying paper airplanes.

So, while the education community and many curriculum/product providers are salivating at the prospect of funneling everything educational into a 7” x 9” hunk of silicon, I believe we need to keep in mind that these grand new tablets (quite a step up from the Big Chief tablets of old) are just tools, like many other tools that we need to incorporate into the education of our young people. And yes, there are many new apps that can be great tools for education, but we just need to use the right tool for the right job, particularly the real hands-on projects.

Engineering the Future

By Bill Holden, Development Specialist
bholden@pitsco.com

In today’s vernacular, everything is condensed to an “app,” which for old geezers like me, is short for an application. But not everything can be funneled into an app – some manual tasks that need to be done are not applicable (pun intended) to a software/hardware solution.

By its nature, hands on has a building connotation – constructing complex things from simple materials. And not just drag and drop on a computer screen; we at Pitsco Education mean real construction. Simulations are fine and have their place, but at some point, it comes down to doing the real thing.

Please allow me to illustrate the point. Diabetics simulate an insulin injection by giving an orange a shot. Even though this is a hands-on simulation (you really are giving an injection, it is just an injection into a poor, unsuspecting orange), it eventually comes down to having to inject yourself. Believe me, it is different.

Nurses giving shots, doctors doing surgery (and yes, I know that there are now robotic surgeons that operate from hundreds of miles away via tele-op connections), mechanics working on jet engines, carpenters swinging hammers, woodsmen sawing firewood, engineers constructing bridges – all are hands-on activities, not simulations.

For example, bridge-building simulations are great and can help students learn about bridge design. However, they are not a substitute for the hands-on experience of cutting balsa sticks at exact lengths and angles and gluing them together to make a physical model bridge. And the same can be said for just about anything in the realm of hands on – the simulation of dissecting a frog pales in comparison to actually using a scalpel and forceps to tear into it. Folding a paper airplane on-screen and doing a simulated launch is a far cry from the physical experience of folding and flying paper airplanes.

So, while the education community and many curriculum/product providers are salivating at the prospect of funneling everything educational into a 7” x 9” hunk of silicon, I believe we need to keep in mind that these grand new tablets (quite a step up from the Big Chief tablets of old) are just tools, like many other tools that we need to incorporate into the education of our young people. And yes, there are many new apps that can be great tools for education, but we just need to use the right tool for the right job, particularly the real hands-on projects.

Engineering the Future

By Bill Holden, Development Specialist
bholden@pitsco.com

In today’s vernacular, everything is condensed to an “app,” which for old geezers like me, is short for an application. But not everything can be funneled into an app – some manual tasks that need to be done are not applicable (pun intended) to a software/hardware solution.

By its nature, hands on has a building connotation – constructing complex things from simple materials. And not just drag and drop on a computer screen; we at Pitsco Education mean real construction. Simulations are fine and have their place, but at some point, it comes down to doing the real thing.

Please allow me to illustrate the point. Diabetics simulate an insulin injection by giving an orange a shot. Even though this is a hands-on simulation (you really are giving an injection, it is just an injection into a poor, unsuspecting orange), it eventually comes down to having to inject yourself. Believe me, it is different.

Nurses giving shots, doctors doing surgery (and yes, I know that there are now robotic surgeons that operate from hundreds of miles away via tele-op connections), mechanics working on jet engines, carpenters swinging hammers, woodsmen sawing firewood, engineers constructing bridges – all are hands-on activities, not simulations.

For example, bridge-building simulations are great and can help students learn about bridge design. However, they are not a substitute for the hands-on experience of cutting balsa sticks at exact lengths and angles and gluing them together to make a physical model bridge. And the same can be said for just about anything in the realm of hands on – the simulation of dissecting a frog pales in comparison to actually using a scalpel and forceps to tear into it. Folding a paper airplane on-screen and doing a simulated launch is a far cry from the physical experience of folding and flying paper airplanes.

So, while the education community and many curriculum/product providers are salivating at the prospect of funneling everything educational into a 7” x 9” hunk of silicon, I believe we need to keep in mind that these grand new tablets (quite a step up from the Big Chief tablets of old) are just tools, like many other tools that we need to incorporate into the education of our young people. And yes, there are many new apps that can be great tools for education, but we just need to use the right tool for the right job, particularly the real hands-on projects.

Engineering the Future

By Bill Holden, Development Specialist
bholden@pitsco.com

In today’s vernacular, everything is condensed to an “app,” which for old geezers like me, is short for an application. But not everything can be funneled into an app – some manual tasks that need to be done are not applicable (pun intended) to a software/hardware solution.

By its nature, hands on has a building connotation – constructing complex things from simple materials. And not just drag and drop on a computer screen; we at Pitsco Education mean real construction. Simulations are fine and have their place, but at some point, it comes down to doing the real thing.

Please allow me to illustrate the point. Diabetics simulate an insulin injection by giving an orange a shot. Even though this is a hands-on simulation (you really are giving an injection, it is just an injection into a poor, unsuspecting orange), it eventually comes down to having to inject yourself. Believe me, it is different.

Nurses giving shots, doctors doing surgery (and yes, I know that there are now robotic surgeons that operate from hundreds of miles away via tele-op connections), mechanics working on jet engines, carpenters swinging hammers, woodsmen sawing firewood, engineers constructing bridges – all are hands-on activities, not simulations.

For example, bridge-building simulations are great and can help students learn about bridge design. However, they are not a substitute for the hands-on experience of cutting balsa sticks at exact lengths and angles and gluing them together to make a physical model bridge. And the same can be said for just about anything in the realm of hands on – the simulation of dissecting a frog pales in comparison to actually using a scalpel and forceps to tear into it. Folding a paper airplane on-screen and doing a simulated launch is a far cry from the physical experience of folding and flying paper airplanes.

So, while the education community and many curriculum/product providers are salivating at the prospect of funneling everything educational into a 7” x 9” hunk of silicon, I believe we need to keep in mind that these grand new tablets (quite a step up from the Big Chief tablets of old) are just tools, like many other tools that we need to incorporate into the education of our young people. And yes, there are many new apps that can be great tools for education, but we just need to use the right tool for the right job, particularly the real hands-on projects.

Engineering the Future

By Bill Holden, Development Specialist
bholden@pitsco.com

In today’s vernacular, everything is condensed to an “app,” which for old geezers like me, is short for an application. But not everything can be funneled into an app – some manual tasks that need to be done are not applicable (pun intended) to a software/hardware solution.

By its nature, hands on has a building connotation – constructing complex things from simple materials. And not just drag and drop on a computer screen; we at Pitsco Education mean real construction. Simulations are fine and have their place, but at some point, it comes down to doing the real thing.

Please allow me to illustrate the point. Diabetics simulate an insulin injection by giving an orange a shot. Even though this is a hands-on simulation (you really are giving an injection, it is just an injection into a poor, unsuspecting orange), it eventually comes down to having to inject yourself. Believe me, it is different.

Nurses giving shots, doctors doing surgery (and yes, I know that there are now robotic surgeons that operate from hundreds of miles away via tele-op connections), mechanics working on jet engines, carpenters swinging hammers, woodsmen sawing firewood, engineers constructing bridges – all are hands-on activities, not simulations.

For example, bridge-building simulations are great and can help students learn about bridge design. However, they are not a substitute for the hands-on experience of cutting balsa sticks at exact lengths and angles and gluing them together to make a physical model bridge. And the same can be said for just about anything in the realm of hands on – the simulation of dissecting a frog pales in comparison to actually using a scalpel and forceps to tear into it. Folding a paper airplane on-screen and doing a simulated launch is a far cry from the physical experience of folding and flying paper airplanes.

So, while the education community and many curriculum/product providers are salivating at the prospect of funneling everything educational into a 7” x 9” hunk of silicon, I believe we need to keep in mind that these grand new tablets (quite a step up from the Big Chief tablets of old) are just tools, like many other tools that we need to incorporate into the education of our young people. And yes, there are many new apps that can be great tools for education, but we just need to use the right tool for the right job, particularly the real hands-on projects.