CAAD - to Teach, or not to Teach?

Usefulness of CAAD in architectural practice is not a matter to discuss. Probably it is very hard nowadays to find an architect practitioner who really believes, that CAAD isn't a useful tool in architectural office. Finding a job after finishing the studies at faculty of architecture isn't easy without knowledge of computer. For us as teachers it is a great challenge. We want our students to be as well as possible prepared for their work. So problem, how to put CAAD into amount of their knowledge is a very important point. However, computers are nowadays probably the fastest changing element of our reality. Differences between software and hardware used a few years ago and now are sometimes colossal. In spite of the fact, that in the field of using computers in design we are usually ahead of most architects practitioners, I think we are sentenced to be backward contemporary demands. Program of teaching CAAD prepared even with great care and accuracy is obsolete even when it starts. It is impossible to catch up with future. Which is a right place for CAAD in architectural education? Is it not true, that sometimes we try to teach CAAD by architecture instead of teaching architecture by CAAD? For many students CAAD is the most natural tool for design, a tool which has replaced pencil and a sheet of paper. Is it our success? I am not so sure. Limitations of CAAD systems are much bigger than pencil's one. Like every sophisticated tool it limits amount of possible solutions. CAAD should not be a fetish! I think maybe it is not such a stupid idea not to teach CAAD, but let our students find a right place for it like for any other useful tools