Subject: C, I & Internet
From: Muhammad Betz (mbetz@sosu.edu)
Date: Tue 18 Jan 2000 - 21:20:07 MET
From: "Muhammad Betz" <mbetz@sosu.edu> Subject: C, I & Internet Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 09:20:07 +1300
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Dear Readers,
This post (with permission) is from an IT person from South Africa, who
posted comments to this discussion on another list.
Muhammad B.
My thoughts around the subject are one dimensional and oten I'm called a
reductionalist due to over simplifying complex issues, that said here they
are:
1. The Internet has the following advantages:
1.1 Cost of delivery is cheaper than traditional printing and
shipping;
1.2 Cost of producing electronic content should be comparable to
"dead wood publishing". This said I do realise that interactive based
content does require a higher skill level than static content. It for
example requires more thought especially when adding hyperlinks to cross
reference to important and similar content (ie using the medium to get the
most out of it);
1.3 Internet never sleeps and is available from anywhere/one on
the planet;
1.4 .....many more examples here.
2. The Internet has the following dis-advantages:
2.1 The maze/web is vast and time consuming when one actually
wants to find sites that have what you are looking for;
2.2 Some sites (after you have found them), have good content
but often the layout or speed of their connection is such that you tend to
give up looking before getting what you came for;
2.3 The cost of programming/hosting and maintenance is not easy
to recover in the field of education that has seen budgets decline. The
banner advert paradigm was touted as the solution, but most "surfers" dont
like banners. It slows down the connection and the user frustration level
often leads to purposefully not clicking on the banners, which ultimately
defeates the business model of pay per click-through. You also need a banner
sales/accounting team = more overheads;
2.4 .....many more examples here.
3. Proposed solutions to dis-advantages in point 2:
3.1 Many institutions on the planet are favouring the idea of
joining forces. We have seen numerous multi-nationals merge in recent years.
Goverments are trying to do similar, examples being the EU, SADC (Southern
African Development Community), and parts of Asia, Australsia are following
suite. The G5 was expanded, the UN is trying to become more representative.
I would argue/urge that educationalists on the planet should be following
the same trend. Given this becomes a reality in educational circles then
2.1 could be solved by building a moderated Yahoo/Excite/Lycos
specifically for Education (the Webquest concept could work well here);
3.2 Be more patient (tongue in cheek) but hopefully this is
temporary and in time standards will be agreed upon that simplify and unify
the navigational aspects of web sites, thereby upping the level of
accessability. We are also all aware of the fact that bandwidth is getting
cheaper by the day;
3.3 Why do something if you know it defeats your goals? If the goal is
to get educationalists to share and grow, then economy of scales should
allow these sites to be able to reduce costs when compared to the
traditional shipping costs (point 1.1). Perhaps another solution is member
access, where access is paid for on a yearly/monthly/access fee - I must
believe that the content can warrant a fee.
My personal thoughts of starting to deliver educational content is as
follows:
Background:
1. Teachers are very busy with a full daily schedule;
2. Most teachers dont have the time/expertise to build their own
curriculum;
3. Setting exam papers is time consuming;
4. Exam papers "should" include all the important aspects of any
particular subject ie mirror the curriculum.
(OBE which has just reached South Africa, does not rely on the set exam
paradigm, I'm not sure how this is going to effect the future, but surely
students must be tested in some manner? If only for you as the teacher to
know that you are doing it right!)
Solution:
1. A web site that holds thousands of exam papers for all possible
subjects, from grade 1 to undergraduates;
2. The exam papers must be in a file format that is printable and
independant of printing technology. Adobe Acrobat with its free readers,
gets my vote here;
3. Teachers download the papers, print them out on their local printers
and photo-stat copies for students;
4. Students use these as study/tutorial guides;
5. Complex layout of papers for subjects like maths, physics is not
possible in HTML - another reason for using Acrobat.
Benefits:
1. The "quality of instruction standards" issue is solved, cause
previously dis-advantaged communities can reach the same level as their
conterparts - by being able to answer the same exam papers (Maths grade 4 is
now at the same level irrespective of town/county/province/state/country)
This is a far fetched ideal cause most politcal parties struggle to agree
with each other on issues, not to mention getting one country's educational
department talking to another (call me an optimist);
2. The "small is beautifull" paradigm becomes a reality - small
classes, small communities benefit by being part of the greater community.
Furthermore the local paper/printer/toner merchant in the community gets
local business. The losers are the printers and long haulers that transport
the "dead wood copies" from the central big cities to final destination
(many more by-product advantages here due to this principal of fast,
required material delivered digitally within the community where the need
is);
3. What about the book publishers? What about their years of care and
experience? I think these Adobe Acrobat files should be sponsored. Lets face
it once its down on your hard drive and you are printing it out, so what if
it has a company logo on every page? This is more favourable than banner
adverts whilst web surfing.
The publishers could charge for Acrobat downloadable files, but the
copyright issue will be hard to enforce and collecting cash from pirate
copies even harder. Hence get the bucks embedded in the product by way of
corporate logo sponsors, count the downloads and charge accordingly.
Summary:
1. Starting with the exam papers is easier/cheaper than rolling out a
complete computer based training system where each kid would need a keyboard
in front of them;
2. This would directly benefit the teachers firstly (saving them time)
- thereby getting them to buy-into the concept of using technology. (in
South Africa many teachers are scared and lie low saying to themselves "I
retire in X years time, and hopefully I wont need to use it before then");
3. The bricks, mortar, chalk and blackboards are not threatened. Human
interaction is still key and slowly slowly the awareness and acceptance of
using technological tools are grown;
4. Once acceptance levels, in conjunction with the hardware, skills and
big bandwidth become a reality then the on-line teacher/exam will be far
easier to sell and make a reality. (not sure i want that though, we are
sentient beings that need human touch to stay in touch!)
Thats enough from me. Clearly this needs alot more thought to make it a
reality.
Over to you and your thoughts as Tom sais!
Regards
Mr Naude'van der Merwe
PictureNET Africa
http://picturenet.africa.com/ <http://picturenet.africa.com/>
Johannesburg
South Africa
naude@picturenet.co.za <mailto:naude@picturenet.co.za>
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