The time it takes to download information is one of the most crucial aspects to the success of the lesson. We acknowledge the fact that many school systems do not have the resources to provide a high-speed connection to the Internet and we have tried to optimize the student activity to take this into account. Below are some guidelines of what to expect for the particular setup and some tests to help the viewer determine what can be expected from this lesson.
For the lessons with movies in MPEG format, the average size is about 1.3MB. For slow modems, i.e. modems that the average consumer would buy, one can expect a single movie to take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to download. If using this lesson in a time-limited classroom setting, one should consider warning the students not to view the movies. We are planning on providing the lessons in a form which can be downloaded outside of classroom time.
Connection speed to the Internet is dependent on a number of factors: the hardware used to connect, the company or Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing access to the Internet, and the configuration of the Internet itself. The significant factor in speed is the hardware used to connect. The cheapest method is by using a standard telephone modem, many models of which are available through computer stores, mail order catalogues, etc. Such modems use existing phone lines to make connections to an ISP. The standard in the current consumer market are modems which transmit information at 14.4 KiloBits per second (Kbs) or 28.8 Kbs. Such modems also typically are capable of compressing the information that is being transferred achieving upwards of 115.2 Kbs. Though advertised as fast, from the Internet such transfer speeds are slow.
Most home users and many schools probably have a slow connection. To determine if the activity can be used in a classroom setting, consider the following numbers and perform the suggested tests below.
|
File Size |
14.4Kbs |
28.8Kbs |
| 1 Kb | 1 second | 0.5 second |
| 10 Kb | 10 seconds | 5 seconds |
| 100 Kb | 1.6 minutes | 50 seconds |
| 500 Kb | 8 minutes | 4 minutes |
| 1 MB | 16 minutes | 8 minutes |
| 2 MB | 33 minutes | 16 minutes |
A full-sized image in this lesson typically is about 39Kb. Click on this icon
and time how long it takes to download. You should do this several times to
get an average download time. 
47Kb
Even if you do not have the software setup to view MPEG movies, you can still
download movies to experience how long it will take. Checkout the download time
with this 1.6 MB movie
Modems of speeds around 33Kps have recently started appearing on the market. These modems should improve performance. The standard fast connections are ISDN and the T-family of connections, i.e. T1, T3 lines. If one has any of these types of connections, there should be no issue with downloading the images and movies in these pages.
However, if there are any doubts, get the test image and movie above to confirm how fast the information can flow into your system.