Technology education courses move away from old-school craftsmanship - Brian Jarvis, Citizen's Voice

If shop classes recall images of metal ashtrays and wooden birdhouses, you’re way behind the times — at least at Wilkes-Barre Area. For the millennium generation, industrial arts — now known as technology education or tech ed — has moved beyond old-school craftsmanship to the high-tech arenas of robotics and computers, said Bob McDaniels, Wilkes-Barre Area coordinator of technology education. If a student wanted to make a birdhouse today, for instance, he would log on to the Internet, research what types of birds are native to area as well as its predators, design a blueprint using computer-assisted drafting (no patterns allowed), figure out what building materials are the most practical, be it twigs, pinewood or plastic, and then set about construction.

Read More..