[LINK] CWA urges action on data drought

[David Boxall]

On 23/04/2016 11:29 PM, Brendan wrote:
> On 04/23/2016 08:31 PM, David Boxall wrote:
>> The impact of neglect by successive governments shouldn't surprise
>> me, but I'm shocked.
>> <http://www.theland.com.au/story/3862348/cwa-urges-action-on-data-drought/>
>>
>
> []
>
>>> Her daughter in law, who lives on a neighbouring property, started
>>> to study a degree in agriculture from home – but had ot give it up
>>> because the courses resources were streamed videos online.
>
> [hobby horse]
> But part of the problem is the fact that they are videos. My experience
> is that most videos add very little to the accompanying audio (unless
> there's something physical to be demonstrated) but come at a huge data
> cost. A slide pack + audio will adequately cover most things (and with
> better resolution).
> Streaming just compounds the problem because you can't download it and
> watch it later.
> [/hobby horse]
> ...
Indeed, but Australia is a different universe. Course materials expand 
to exploit anticipated resources, much as the observed exponential 
growth in demand for data is just the web getting heavier as it adapts 
to the rest of the world's improvements in bandwidth. Canute and the 
tide spring to mind.

Video and audio are generally poor teaching media. Of course, so are 
lectures.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  The more that wise people learn
                                 |  The more they come to appreciate
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  How much they don't know.
                                                         --Confucius