Contemporary Business 14th Edition by Louis Boone, David Kurtz

تمرين 16

The Dog Ate My Laptop The night of the tornado, Superintendent of Schools Darin Headrick heard the storm sirens go off on his way home from work. He stopped at the home of High School Principal Randy Fulton and the two men headed for the basement, just in case. The next thing they knew, the entire school system was gone. Textbooks were scattered every-where, computers destroyed.For the first three months after the storm, no one could live in town. People stayed in shelters or with friends and family outside of town. No one had a home phone anymore, but people were eager to connect with each other and find out what was happening. Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was distributing information at checkpoints on the edges of town, people had to go to town to get it.Like 95 percent of the town's 1,500 residents, Headrick himself was homeless. With just four months to rebuild anentire school system, all he had were his laptop and cell phone, so he got into his truck and began searching for a wireless signal. Taking a lesson from his students, he used text messaging to distribute information. Although very few people still had computers, almost everyone had a cell phone. Residents who subscribed to the text service could receive updates and instant messages over the phone, wherever they were.Rebuilding the schools was a bigger task. Headrick secured temporary trailers for grades K-12 and received gen-
erous donations of desks and school supplies. By August 15, he had the basics needed to start the school year, but he still lacked textbooks. Technology would have to fill in the gaps, so the students didn't fall behind.One of the school system's existing programs was ITV, for Interactive Distance Learning Network. ITV allowed Greensburg's rural schools to log in to classrooms around the state via Web cam. This type of real-time distance learning is referred to as synchronous learning, as opposed to the asynchronous online courses given on college campuses. After the tornado, all that was needed to get the program up and running again were a computer, an Internet connection, and a Web cam.Early in the winter each of Greensburg High's students got an unexpected gift: a laptop computer containing e-books, handwriting recognition software, and a tablet screen for note taking. The new laptops replaced their tattered textbooks. Students would hand in their assignments via e-mail and receive feedback from their teachers via instant messaging. After viewing the video, answer the following questions:
-Would you consider enrolling in an asynchronous online course? What might be the benefits and drawbacks?