|
|
| DELIVERY |
| AlbaCorps has chosen three methods for getting our materials to students: |
1. Compact Disk
2. Intranet (State, District, Business server)
3. In-house Installation
Hard copy printing of the entire course is possible but, not practical. There are over 5,000 slides and pages on the CD. The printout is 30 inches high and weighs over 20 pounds.
Additionally, we offer downloads from the WWW for pdf versions of the course as well as periodic updates.
|
| Why not the Internet as our Primary Delivery? |
We offer much of the course in a format that can easily be downloaded to a district/business/lab computer or to a student's desktop where it will be available 24/7/365.
Internet delivery is not our #1 choice for delivery for several reasons:
|
1. Cost/Availability/ Inconvenience/Speed
2. Safety
3. Accessibility
4. File Size
|
| For a more complete description of Internet negatives, please see below. |
| Cost/Availability/ Inconvenience/Speed |
A course as comprehensive as this one cannot be learned in a few classroom and lab hours in a single semester. Mastery of end-user skills takes many years. Therefore, this course MUST be available to all students at all times, including time when they are at home doing homework.
Quality digital textbooks utilize multimedia, including text, graphics, animations, video, sounds, and narrations.
Phone line connections are simply inadequate for downloading quality textbooks. Cable services that are needed to download large file sizes can cost $50 a month or more. And, in many rural areas, high speed connections are simply not available.
For large files, the simple act of turning pages can take a lot of time and kill student interest and concentration.
Therefore, many publishers must downgrade their presentations to text-based and small graphics only so that the majority of students can access them.
This totally defeats the purpose of creating and using advanced digital technology for textbook delivery. These limitations make it discriminatory- and may deprive the very students who need this information the most. |
| Safety |
It is a well-established fact that the use of the Internet can be dangerous for people of any age and especially for innocent children. Many parents prefer that their children not be exposed to these dangers.
In order to help eliminate the dangers of online predators, identity thieves, and other unscrupulous individuals, we offer the course with a limited (or no) need for Internet usage. |
| Accessibility and File Size |
AlbaCorps publications are designed for use by ALL students. Thus, we use programs that allow blind students to "see", deaf students to "hear", physically challenged students to "move about", and Spanish-speaking students to learn basic computer skills as they learn to master English.
To accomplish all of this, we must use a variety of programs, each of which offers ways to overcome any and all disabilities.
These programs have large file sizes; and, as the course must be presented using three different methods, the overall size of our course is over 600MB.
Currently, 5MB files are the limit for most downloads. 600 MB takes a long time, even with a T1 or T3 line. And, when the course material can also be installed and used as a utility for future use, it makes far more sense to use CD as our primary delivery method.
With this approach, only one textbook is needed and no child is left behind.
|
|
|
|
