Today was interesting.     My first impressions on "Telematic services" before the lecture started was that the technology are relatively "old", but I was wrong.    Communication to the lecturer happened via Cellphone (SMS).    You first registered for the telematic session via SMS.    The lecturer could then determine who is in class since the cellphone nr is part of your student details.     In posting a question via SMS he would then be able to know who posted the question.

At first I thought that a "webinar" type setup would work much better.    In hindsight the current way of working was very smooth and the SMS method worked remarkably well.    I also realised that the following might have been more challenging with a webinar.

  • Not all students had laptops, but all had cellphones.   No installation was necessary on any laptop.
  • Various geographical boundaries.    The current setup made use of a satellite link between the classrooms and the content streaming happened without any delay or break in image.    Enabling a session to go to individual laptops might have been difficult on the network.
  • There was an option that you could SMS the lecturer to call you.    This worked well and everyone attending could hear the conversation regardless of where you were situated.   I remember on some webinar sessions how difficult it is to hear questions posted to the presenter.
  • The session was conducted with an easy way for the lecturer to switch between camera, whiteboard or presentation mode.   I have seen more than once how difficult this task is sometimes accomplished with a webinar.
  • The session is recorded on DVD.    This would also be possible via Webinar, but the smooth running of the session described above would make recording to DVD a little easier without any editing.

This was an example for me where bleading edge technology would have lost against a somewhat older but much more stable setup.    :)   Well done Stellenbosch I was pleasantly surprised.

In summary I am tired, have a headache and enjoyed the session.

O yes, more info about Stellenbosch's Telematic services