With technology changing all the time, it's hard to keep the same assignments - at least the exact same assignments and content from year to year.
To some extent the content does stay the same, and always - always the content provides a base for the course in order to reflect on how technology has and is changing.
Earlier this summer I was asked to create a white paper on the changes that would need to take place within an introductory graduate level course whose primary content was seated in hardware installation, maintainance and expertise. I was excited about writing it because I understand just how much has changed - in large part because I've been through much of that change.
On the flip side though, the technology that's hi-lighted one year may be surpassed by some other technology the next, or as in one personal case, a technology in beta one semester may go 'pro' the next and require some type of minimal payment, necessitating it to be dropped from the assignment contingent.
This type of ebb and flow isn't without precident however. Any good, well-experienced teacher who cares about what they teach and how they teach it, examines how well the methods and means of teaching went the previous semester, unit, week, or lesson to improve them in the next. This re-examination only gets more dizzying when we understand how little technology stays the same and just how much it continues to change.
