A History of Distance Learning Interactive Distance Learning (Part 3 of 3) by Ken Freed The biggest barrier to the success of educational media has been the difficulties of students interacting effectively with instructors, an ability inherent in the live classroom. Answering the need, Coast College set a precedent in the Seventies by buying 15 answering machines to record students' messages for telecourse instructors, who replied in a day or so. Answering machines averaged about $900 each back then, so this was a big investment. Consequently, the use of answering machines became standard in telecourse design. In the early Nineties, U.S. universities started giving students access to the Internet, the decentralized computer network developed during the Cold War that linked military and government offices with university research centers. Once the Internet was opened to the public, the use of email became so common among students and instructors that voicemail was demoted to secondary status. The explosive growth of the Internet, in fact, changed the essential character of delivering educational content to remote students. The terms "distance learning" and "telematics" were coined to describe the process, which no longer relies on the TV. The Internet is becoming the medium of choice for educators, since it provides all the elements vital for distance learning: On-demand delivery of video, audio, text, and graphics. Immediate online access to vast libraries of research materials. Real-time or near-real-time interaction among instructors and students. Yet the Internet has disadvantages when compared to television. The main problem is bandwidth. Why wait and wait to download a low-resolution video clip at 56 kilobits per second (56k) when TV can deliver a full program in living color? The latest trend has been to create "multiple media" distance learning systems, using curricula from both the television and computer. Given the interactive TV technologies developed in the early Nineties but shelved until the network matured into digital, static one-way educational TV may soon be obsolete. Educators prefer the PC over the PC since the interactive nature of computers is more dynamic, more conducive to learning. Usage of the Internet will accelerate as schools, businesses and homes adopt high-speed cable modems, which operate at 10 to 50 megabits (MB) per second, far faster than plain old telephone lines can deliver. The next generation of digital cable, satellite and wireless interactive TV networks will carry video, text, graphics, and voice communication even faster. Once the capacity of interactive TV is seen in the open marketplace (from video-on-demand to highly personalized programming) the same enthusiasm we now see for the Internet likely will transfer to interactive TV. Demonstrating the possibilities are state-of-the-art facilities constructed for "teaching the teachers" about distance learning. A leading example in Europe is the facility constructed by University College Dublin under their "Blueprint for Interactive Classrooms" (BIC). UCD built an interactive classroom for teaching distant learners through various audiovisual technologies, including the Internet, videoconferencing and interactive television. The top examples in North America are the advanced teacher training centers built by TCI in Denver and Washington DC, which TCI recently donated to Cable in the Classroom. Each classroom has an interoperable PC or Mac on every desktop, linked to a big screen in front of the room. Teachers can display on the main screen whatever they choose from whatever source they choose, be that source their computer, a student's computer, the World Wide Web, digital video stored on a server, or any program from a pay TV channel. Both the TCI and the BIC classrooms are equipped with robotic cameras so activities in that space may be shared with students sitting in remote classrooms or their homes. A classroom without walls. Computer-based interactive distance learning also is being used in the business sector for staff training and development. For instance, Business telecourse giant Video Arts (co-founded by Monty Python veteran John Cleese) created a multimedia division producing CD-ROMs, and they're now moving into "self-learning" packages for delivery over the Internet. Whether the target markets is educational institutions, organizations, or the growing audience of folks at home committed to lifelong learning, the educational media business will keep growing. Beyond the Internet, with the rollout of digital services by cable, satellite and wireless companies, the interactive TV services optimistically heralded in the early Nineties are finally being deployed in the field. The terrestrial broadcasters are close behind with HDTV. As we enter the new millennium, all of these media innovations, and the public's response to these innovations, are advancing distance learning from being a tiny niche educational activity into being the overarching design model now guiding education agendas worldwide Few of us can see the future like the witches of Endor, but a glimpse down the road ahead helps us put the history of educational media into its wider context. The world advances day by day into an increasingly interdependent, information-based, knowledge-driven economy. Those who understand interactive media, who can use the new media to learn whatever they want and need to learn, are the best prepared to take advantage of the media systems emerging over the next few decades. Those lacking deep media literacy may be left behind. Knowledge is power in any society, but in the new knowledge economy, ignorance is bondage. In an era when the democratic ideals of Burke and Jefferson stand their best chance of actualization since the dawn of human history, how do we proceed from here? The best way to develop markets for educational media products is to do the groundwork now to develop a large base of educated people who want and need educational content. Individuals and companies that invest in the educational media marketplace today will be the best positioned to PAYSper tomorrow.   For More Information on Distance Learning: Visit the: Online Resources Page at ADEC   (c) 1998-2005 by Ken Freed. Based on the book, Financial Opportunities in Educational Television, by Ken Freed. Financial Times Media & Telecoms, London, 1998. (ISBN 1-84073-016-1) .

About Ken Freed

Knowledge is power in any society, but in the new knowledge economy, ignorance is bondage.

.

Last update: 7 APRIL 2003

Return to Top of Page