> By "mechanics of information technology" I suspect they mean hardware.
I'm not so sure... wouldn't saying "mechanics of information technology
and hardware" be redundant, then?
> I only understand hardware at a vague, theoretical level. While it's
> useful to understand what the hardware is doing, it is not necessary
> to know what makes a PCI bus different from an a ISA bus to be able to
> write application-level (or even system-level) programs, any more than
> it is necessary to understand quantum physics to design a circuit with
> semiconductors.
I don't think hardware *is* taught on that level, though, at least not
within the guise of a *programming* class. What we learned in my basic
programming class (the first one a person would see entering the
curriculum) was what the difference between hardware and software was,
and how things flowed in general, how data was physically stored on the
medium, stuff like that. Nothing like quantum mechanics (yuck)... I
don't know how many intro level programming courses cover anything more,
but I doubt it's that large of a number.
I think the AAUW is poking fingers at the wrong thing, at least from
personal experience.
-nicole
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