On 14/11/2015 9:00 AM, Tom Worthington wrote: > The Australian proposal to do this through the NBN is a bit dated. In the > education > community we have moved from thinking about classroom education, through > computer > education and now on to mobile education involving a social component. The > NBN is no > use for this, as it is a fixed, not mobile, infrastructure. Tom - I find this extremely limited and woolly thinking. The only truly 'mobile' infrastructure that doesn't rely on a fixed network foundation is a satellite network - and I do not imagine for a minute you are suggesting all the education community is thinking of distance education by satellite!
All 'mobile' infrastructure has a foundation of fixed infrastructure. On cellular mobile networks the path between handset and content is only 'mobile' for the last kilometre or two - the vast majority of the path is on fixed - usually fibre-optic- infrastructure. WiFi networks even more so. Enhancements in radio technology to achieve faster speeds and lower latency all revolve around *shortening* the final radio link that enables mobile terminals to be mobile - 'mobile infrastructure' is evolving to incorporate more and more fixed infrastructure, not less. I rather think you must be confusing mobile infrastructure with mobile terminals for user interaction. I can well understand how the education community might be embracing the use of movable, mobile devices to deliver educational outcomes, removing the need for students to travel to a certain location or sit in a certain place. This is *not* the same as requiring a mobile infrastructure - the NBN fixed infrastructure forms a fine backhaul network to enable ubiquitous WiFi and other radio technologies to connect mobile devices to educational content and to each other. Paul. _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
