More of the Same, or a Brave New Path?

Where "real learning" actually takes place is open to debate. And thatdebate has been heated up by the introductionof streaming. Text-based online education was one thing, a fairly staticentity. With video, audio and interactivity, the ante is upped."Streaming technology is definitely seductive," Vaidhyanathan says. "It'sall the bells and whistles." But he draws a parallel with the arrival oftelevision, and recalls predictions about whether it would make peoplestupid — or richer and smarter.

"A lot of people made a very strong argument that the brilliance oftelevision, the spectacle of television could make it the most powerfulteaching tool ever created," he argues. "Well, 40 years later, nobody isreally celebrating the fact that television made us all smarter. Once we gotbeyond Sesame Street, it hasn¹t really helped us that much."

Ask Rowe for prognostication about the future of streaming education, andyou get a very different answer. He¹s looking to push BIBS into the nextphase.

"My mantra is multiple streams, with user selection of what they¹rewatching. I think that makes sense, not only in education, but everywhere.Students want to look over at the board and see what the data result was orat the experiment or some want to look at the faculty. You could try to putall of those things, moderated, switching back and forth within one camerafeed, but it's a hell of a lot easier if you just have three or four camerasand just let the user choose which one they want to look at," says Rowe.Whether it's in the form of interactive lectures or a manifestation not yetimagined, streaming is on the syllabus for higher education.

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