Builders with a conscience - Invited Commentary on the paper Architects or builders; scaffolding or duck tape?

In this commentary, we elaborate on the necessity to choose among a wider, higher-level conceptual approach and a more concrete, skills oriented one in HCI education, as a result of HCI enlarging scope and curriculum pressures. First, the role and usefulness of more abstract topics are discussed, and second, some reflections on how to cover them in HCI education are presented.