End of Semester

After the pressure of exams (on both students and professors) it is nice to have a chance to conclude the semester's business and look forward to the next semester, which is imminent. It's enough of a break to allow for some catching of breath, and to take care of some housekeeping to prepare for the new school year.

I just got this from one of my students:

I would like to thank you for what was easily one of the most thought-provoking classes that I've had throughout both college programs that I have been in. I really hope to apply a lot of the ideologies in my future projects.

It's always nice to know that students get something out of the courses I teach. It's even better when they apply what they've learned in their future endeavours and it makes their lives richer for the educational experience they have received.

That's why I do what I do, in the way that I do it. FIGJAM!

Speed of Light vs. Speed of Sound

A few of the 30DC challengers tell us they are still on dialup. When my students admit that, I tell them, "People! Get into the 21st century!". For my students, and clients, being on high speed broadband is a necessity, for their studies and to conduct business.

For my 30DC friends in that situation, however, such a statement is unfair. There are still parts of the world where bandwidth is at a premium. We're not talking Third World here either. These are neighborhoods that have had running water, indoor plumbing, and fire for quite a long time, thank you very much. What they haven't had are enlightened community leadership and adequate funding for infrastructure. Neo-Luddite thinking has hobbled communities that are most in need of access to information outside their local boundaries.

With fibre optics and satellite technology the technorati are operating at the speed of light. Anyone still on dialup is waiting for the beep beep beep, rushahh, rushahh, squeal, boing, boing of a modem laboriously connecting to a much-constricted electronic pipeline. The speed of sound never felt so slow.

The good news is that today's web tools can accommodate downloading files overnight, and working offline with e-mail. Still, the Digital Divide persists.

Choose which side of that chasm you want to be on.

BTW, I used to work at a switchboard very much like that. I told you I was old.