Curb Traffic Shaping to Help Students Learn at a Distance

Traffic shaping, particularly bandwidth throttling, hampers use of online tools for education, so although the internet allows for flexibility in education, throttling practices are already degrading the experience and the possibilities for remote/distance learning.

For example, my brother, who is currently studying computer science, reports waiting hours for course material to upload and download, despite paying significant amounts for increased bandwidth from his ISP.

Increasingly students do not need to be in a classroom to learn, unless they choose to, so make it possible to download course material and interact with other students online without debilitating and costly penalties from providers who aim to keep the rewards of a digital economy rather than share and expand, which would result from innovation.

Comment

Chuck Draper — 2010–06–16 21:50:18 EDT wrote

I agree. I want to take university courses, but the sevice provider I am currently using has an unfair access policy. They call it Fair Access Policy, but when I see my speed being reduced to 5% of what I am paying for when I have only downloaded 25% of the hourly limit, I feel that is unfair. Oh yes, one can get faster speed, just pay 6 times as much. That tells me that the bandwidth is there, but their greed prohibits each current consumer, not the number of consumers.