The greatest piece missing from my education at MIT (and from education in general) was the real-world component to the theory-driven classes. I spent the past fall volunteering as a mentor for a program called SPARK here in San Francisco. I had a middle-school student come to my place of employment and spent a small amount of time every week for 3 months exploring real problems that I faced at work. I cannot imagine why this could not be possible on a greater scale with the incredibly talented pool of students at MIT.

I think an institution like MIT has the connections to make internships like this happen on the college-level. It would be beneficial not only for learning but also for building industry connections and introducing a more "case-method" style of teaching.