However, Cooper also found advantages to Avacaster compared to conventional, classroom teaching. Some of them were disciplinary. "Students cannot shout out an answer," and "you can use the whisper feature to talk to one student without the others knowing about it." Should a problem persist, the teacher can mute a student from the chat discussion, "versus sending a student to the principal or out of the room. They are just disconnected from the chat, but can still watch the event." Should a more severe punishment be warranted, a teacher can also ban a student, which causes them to be kicked off the server and prevented from logging back in again.
But the biggest advantages are social, especially for those students whose educational experience might otherwise be entirely solitary. "Students can work at home and still feel a part of a group setting," and "cannot see negative facial communication of others to their responses," says Cooper. "Peer pressure does not enter into academics," and "students have more freedom to convey their feelings and ask their questions." She adds, "It allowed my home schooled students to finally feel like they are part of a classroom of learners instead of alone."
TUITION, ROOM AND BOARD
Avacast offers Avacaster on an annual license, updates included. Hardware is included, in the form of a rack-mountable server that comes with all the necessary software pre-installed. You can use your own server, too, according to Terrell. "Often our customers want to use a particular brand, so if they ship their hardware to us we'll do the install on it instead."
They also offer a hosted option, without the hardware, where you log onto and stream your classes off of their servers in LA. This alleviates any potential hardware headaches-useful if you have a small organization and lack an IT department-"but most people are excited about having the system in-house," says Terrell.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
