Subject: Problems
At 03:57 6/3/97 -0400, Mike Epstein wrote:
>6 - Finally, what do you do when the power goes out :-) Seriously, what have been some of the
biggest problems you've had using this approach to lecture?
I think the greatest obstacles were technical support questions. A good working relationship with computer support is invaluable if you are trying to push the envelope. The bottom line is that things won't always work out the way you plan. So don't loose your cool, and have a backup. I remember being very frustrated after spending a Sunday afternoon planning this amazing and spectacular (or so I thought) multimedia presentation for Monday morning. I got into the class and could not get a network connection. Someone had decided to add a new memory management software program that wrecked havoc with the TCP/IP stack.
Since the problem fell between the cracks of responsibility (fixing it required cooperation between
Instructional Media Services, Academic Computing, and Network Support) it took about 6 weeks
before the connection was reliable. And finally getting this done finally required me going over
someone's head. It was a frustrating and unpleasant experience. I think that the important lesson
from this is that it is important to have clearly defined responsibility for this type of equipment.
The other problem that I have had is getting software loaded in the academic labs. Since they are constantly in use, the software is only changed during breaks. This is part of the reason I went to web based material since it allows me to add material without any change to the laboratory configurations. With the right plug-ins it is possible to run a large selection of software.
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