Work in progress: teaching the art of learning in engineering education

With new technological breakthroughs occurring related to engineering almost daily, it is getting harder and harder to cover all the "essential" material in a four year degree. Some engineers feel we should be sticking to the fundamentals while others think we should be exposing the students to all the leading edge technology. Another response to this information explosion has been that many educators are examining the concept of teaching learning through various engineering concepts. The idea stems from the concept that if we teach the students how to learn for themselves they will be much better prepared for the lifetime of learning that awaits them, especially with respect to complicated new engineering concepts.