> I have ~2Mbaud cable modem service at home for less money than what my ISDN
> cost three years ago. Moore's law suggests that available bandwidth will
> continue to rise and cost continue to fall.
However, costs will most likely remain above the ability of most of our students
to pay them. In my neck of the woods, cable modem service is a $25 a month add
on to your monthly cable bill - and those have not been going down. Add to that
the fact that at last estimates, only about 35% of homes had a computer in them
- I still maintain that computers and the internet will be mostly an adjunct to
the classroom.
> But the very best learners and teachers can teach themselves. Feynman
> avoided reading what other people had written until he had derived it
> himself. People that are simply good can learn faster from a book than in
> a classroom and hypertext and interactive media are easier to use than
> books.
But even Feynman had to start from somewhere with professors and friends with
whom he tossed around ideas. Myself, I find hypertext annoying and find it hard
to read text on a screen - I can't get up walk around, think about it, pencil in
the margins, doodle - be creative.
Not to mention the ultimate problem - reliability. What do you do in the
classroom when the technology breaks down. I've seen it happen and I'm sure
everybody else has as well. Most of the distance ed/internet programs I've seen
locally (including WGU) tend towards turning education into a commodity - and
deep in my heart, I don't believe that.
Jay Malmstrom
Oklahoma City Community College
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