US/ND-1: Re: A teachers perspective initially
Re: A teachers perspective initially
Rex Buddenberg (budden@nps.navy.mil)
Wed, 28 Aug 96 08:21:39 -0700
> Jan Bolluyt wrote:
> >
> > When do "students" stop their "studenthood". At what point do we deny
> > subsidized access. College? Junior College? Early graduates? Adult
> > education? GED students? "life-long" learners?
> >
> > Jan
>
> Excellent point. If we subsidize educational instutions, does this mean
> only those within the bricks and mortar buildings, or does it apply to
> students doing homework, or home schooling, or teachers from home? An
Broaden the perspective a bit. The economic issue isn't
edu vs everything else, but rather non-commercial use vs
commercial use (an issue that the Internet as a whole thrashed
about 4 years ago). Consider 'subidized service' for a
wider audience and crank this economy:
- include the fire department, police department,
hospitals, and ambulance folks as part of the non-commercial
base. Note that they are funded out of the same tax base
so the economies of scale ought to be attractive.
- consider the role of schools when a disaster
strikes. Consider what the role of the schools might
be if the Northridge quake had struck at 10AM instead of
0430.
There are several one-time costs (like a network
operations infrastructure) that you're willy-nilly stuck
with regardless of the size of the network. So making the
network bigger lets you pro-rate those costs over a wider base.
Rex Buddenberg