DOCUMENT RESUME ED 044 917 EM 00P 572 Telecommunications: Toward National Policies for Education. the Report of the National
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 044 917 EM 00P 572 AUTHOR Meaney, John W. ,Ed. ; Carpenter, C. Pay,' 5d. TITLE Telecommunications: Toward National Policies for Education. The Report of the National Conference on Telecommunications Policy in Education, The Georgia Center for Continuing 5ducation, Athens, Georgia, December 4-6, 1968. TNSTITUTION Joint Council on Educational Telecommunication, ?ashington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Charles F. Kettering poundation, Dayton, Ohio.: cord Foundation, New York, N.Y. PUB DATE 70 NOTE 201p. EDRS PRICE 7rps Price MF-$1.00 HC-T10.15 DESCRIPTORS Adult Education, Broadcast Television, Cable Television, Communication Satellites, *'ducation, Tnformation Systems, Tnterinstitutional Cooperation, Professional Continuing Education, *Public Policy, Social Chance, Social Problems, Systems Approach, *Telecommunication, Urban Education, Urban Environment IDENTIFIERS Corporation for Public Broadcasting, JCET, Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications, Presidents Task Force on Communications Policy ABSTRACT Papers from a conference on telecommunications are presented in this report, as well as the discussion and recommendations of the five conference commissions. The papers are concerned with education and telecommunications, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, information systems for the future, cable television, satellite systems, the President's Task Force on Communications Policy, and systems applications. The work and reports of the conference commissions centered around the relationships of telecommunication with universities, schools, preschool education, continuing education, and urban education. The recommendations of the conference commissions were that: the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications (JCET) should insure the recognition of education's stake in the new technologies, that JCET should emphasize the importance of the opportunity that now exists to bring two-way cable communications into the American home, that JCET should help with strategy to use communications media in attacking social problems, that JCET should join with other aaencies to bring about cooperative production of instructional materials, and that JCET should urge the United States Office of Education to expand its programs for training faculty and technicians in the use of telecommunications. (M5) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES- SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY 214" TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Toward National Policies For Education Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications 1126 Sixteenth Street, N. W. 0 Washington, O. C. 20036 0 TELECOMMUNICATIONS: TOWARD NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION John W. Meaney and C.RayCarpenter Editors The report of the NationalConference on Telecommunications Education, The Policy in GeorgiaCenterforContinuingEducation, Athens, Georgia, December 4-6,1968. FOREWORD The original Joint Council on Educational Television (JCET) sponsored the firstnational conference on the formulation of national policies for educational television. This conference was held at The Pennsylvania State University in 1952 and the report was edited by Carroll V. Newsom. A second conference held at Penn State in 1957, and again with JCET and American Council on Education sponsorship, focused attention on what had been learned about the place of television in instruction and on the special implications for American higher education. The report on college teaching by television was edited by John C. Adams, Dorothy Smith, and myself. AfterthereorganizationofJCETintothepresentJointCouncil on Educational Telecommunications,it seemed entirely appropriate for the council with funds from the Charles F. Kettering and Ford Foundations to sponsor another national conference, this time at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, the University of Georgia, Athens. The first national conference laid the basis for policies on station-channel reservations for education and their development, whereas the third conference is responding to a greatly expanded set of problems consequent upon the rapid development of communication technologies. Among other developments are included color, bi-directional communications, videotape recording and reproduction, multichanneldistribution bycable,"narrow-casting,"point-to-points microwave distribution,the application of laser beams in communications, and finally satellite relay systems for continental and intercontinental distribution of cultural, educational, and instructional programs. The intended emphasis of the third conference in Georgia was on education problems, social needs, and how to respond to these by means of telecommunication instrumentation. These emphases are reflected in the stated purposes of the Georgia conference: 1.To assess our nation's future education and community services for telecommunications. 2.To explore telecommunications alternatives...which might be used to meet community needs and to ascertain the unique role of each element in a total systems approach to the solution of critical community problems. iii 3. To examine the role of educational communications in American life to see what might be done to mobilize its many components, singly and in combinations, in a massive attack on some of the major problems of our communities. The orientation of plans for the conference in Georgia toward societal needs and requirements is reflected in the titles of the five conference commissions, their work, and their recommendations for policy guidance and for action:I. The University and Interinstitutional Cooperation,II. The School and Preschool Education, Ill. Continuing, Professional, and Adult Education, IV. Urban Education and Urban Problems, and V. Rural America. The characteristics of the conference and the span and depth with which it dealt with its tasks were basically determined by the experiences and abilities of the people who attended the conference. However, the complexity of the subjects, the diversity of viewpoints, and the vast amount of available evidence required more than the limited two and one-half days of intensive work to accomplish the desired results. One of the commissions has held subsequent meetings, and several of them recommended sustained or continuing action. The number and depth of the summary statements and recommendations accurately reflect what the conference achieved. This conference like many other similar short-term efforts found it most difficult to conceptualize and express broad fundamental policies with long-term perspective which could provide national guidance in the complex areas of social requirements, education, and telecommunications. Actually, the 1968 National Conference on Telecommunications Policy and Education yielded much evidence and many opinions contingent to the formulation of national policy. It was propaedeutic to policy formulations whichwouldguidetheeffortsanddevelopmentsofeducationinitsusesof telecommunication technologies as means of attacking the problems and issues which perennially challenge the nation's educational efforts. Since the Georgia conference two important commissions have made their reports, both of which are summarized in the appendix of this conference report. Almost simultaneously with the Georgia conference, the President's Task Force on Communications Policy was issued in December 1968. Of close relevance to the Georgia conference is the work of the Commission on Instructional Technology which was iv authorized by Title III of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The report of this nine-man commission was completed in the summer of 1969 and channeled through the U.S. Office of Education and the Office of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to the Office of the President. In March 1970, the report was sent to Congress. Both reports are available for study in the drafting of new legislation. The Georgia conference was conceived and nurtured by the Board of the Joint Council on Educational Telecommunications. In response, the conference has outlined many tasks important for JCET to undertake and accomplish. Among the suggested tasks perhaps the most important are to insure that education's interests and voices are forcefully represented in public telecommunications planning and in the drafting and enacting of future legislation. Thus, the JCET of 1968 and forward continues the earlier mission which was so successfully accomplished by the JCET of the late forties and early fifties. C. Ray Carpenter V DIGEST AND SUMMARY OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CONFERENCE COMMISSIONS 1. JCET should undertake prompt action to reaffirm and insure the recognition of education's stake in communications satellites as well as inall new technologies. Specifically includedin this recommendation is the necessity for the protection of education's needs for spectrum space. To begin the implementationofthisrecommendationthe JCET willfileappropriate commentsinFederal Communications Commission Dockets No. 18262 (Proposed reassignment of the upper UHF frequencies to land mobile radio services) and No. 18294 (Inquiry relating to the preparation for a world administrative radio conference of the International Telecommunications Union on matters pertaining to the radio astronomy and space services). 2. JCET should emphasize in every possible way the importance of the opportunity that now exists to