just for instance, i am brainstorming here, not a flame :) ...
Neither is this
if you want to cover the major brands, you are looking at buying a set of boards, one chip manufacturer
No one in this thread is suggesting that a course "cover the major brands", it is merely suggested they are using current developement practices. If you can handle an Atmel Flash processor (which I wouldn't use, but not argue against), you can handle a Philips and (with a bit more effort) a SILabs.
The problem with the old boards is that
1) They make the student think the 8255 is the cats miauw
2) They make the student believe that a monitor is standard, how often have we seen "I want to blink a LED, the monitor ....."
3) They teach "monitor based" debugging techniques which is a total waste of time since they will never see it in "the real world" where a monitor is never used.
4) Is the purpose of a school to teach useful knowledge or teach for the sake of teaching.
5) A graduate is never fully educated, nobody expect that, but we would like to spend the time better than with unlearning the monitor and the 8255 when they get hired.

Now, before I get lamblasted for the above, I could see the "monitor" having a niche market for the "mimimum expenditure" amateur, but that disappeared with the SILabs $99 development boards.

Erik