Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Slowly Up the Learning Curve--Video Seminars

Here's a discussion by John Quiggin at Crooked Timber of his experience holding a video-seminar.

On the one hand, that's the way to go. (John notes the traveling he would have to do to do the seminar in person, but not the energy involved. If "slow food" is good, so is "e-learning").

On the other hand, there have been many video-conferencing trials over the years. I remember doing video conferences between DC and Kansas City several times--it had too much overhead costs for the advantages. I remember trying a version of a video-phone in the late 80's--wasn't really useful. A few more years of Moore's law and maybe technology will be able to fulfill this particular promise. But still, , people are animals, and being there is part of our thing.

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