I sort of started this comparison of the way that electronics was once seen and taught as more of a science than what I believe it to be and remember it being in two different decades. I never meant to say that the students have dumbed it down. I guess simply the progress of technology has slowly over time eliminated the need to dig quite as deep into the various ways of movement and control of electrons; especially under a vacuum (thermionic emission).
The students can't help it that they have the ease of reading voltage, current, and resistance measurements on a digital display having to have little knowledge of component level troubleshooting with signal generators and scopes, or even just a meter. Again, this happened over a number of decades. For us TV nuts it started with the late 60s hybrid sets with remove and replace (modular) section pc boards. What section is causing the problem? Find the board and replace it. That didn't last too long before solid state took over and the TV repairman was becoming the next dinosaur.
As far as "MPEG" and "NTSC" go; I think that those are computer file system terms which would be off topic. Either way, I know am somewhat familiar with the terms, but don't have much reason to be able to write term papers on them.
Folks look up vacuum tube full wave bridge rectifier on YouTube. There is a wonderful training video posted there that to me gives an idea of this difference of how we took on the study of electronics. And it, along with the textbooks of that era that I have gave me, or reaffirmed the thoughts that I conveyed earlier in this thread.
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Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV
I don't think today's students have dumbed-down knowledge at all. Case in point: Explain MPEG-4. All of it. Can you do it in the same space as explaining NTSC?  |