t DOCUMENT RESUME ED ,110 052 IR 002 339 TITLE How Now Brown Cow? The Texas Educational, Telecommunications Study. INSTITUTION Educational Development Corp., Austin, Tex. SPONS AGENCY Texas Education Agency, Austin. PUB DATE 75 NOTE' 323p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76'HC-$15.86 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Cable Television; Closed'Circuit Tele-vision; Communication Satellites; Computers; *Educational Needs; Educational Radio; Educational Television; Fixed Service Television; Home Study; *Instructional' Technology; Librarls; Public Television; *State Surveys; *Statewide.Planning; *Telecommunication; Video Tape Pecordin IDENTIFIERS Data Transmission; *Texas; Two Way Television '3 ABSTPACT The Texas Educational TeleCommunications Study examined problems and solutions involved in providing telecommunication support to education for the state of Texas. Extensive analyses were made in Order to(1) delineate the objective that a telecommunicatiOns system' should meet,(2) establish criteria that would be satisfied, '(3)survey Texas problems and needs, (4) compile ,a statistical analysis of the results,(5) examine the existing networks and systems.in Texas,(6) identify and de'scril5'e successful systems in other states,(7) pinpoint factors effecting the availability and scarcity of software, and(8) propose hypotheses. regarding the.sttuctures of educational technology and telecommunications 10 to 20 years hence. Among the conclusions Of the Study were: eduAtion would best be served by the expansion of an already extensive cable television network to almost all school ). campuses, the same network can provide narrowband channels for data transfer and computer-assisted instruction, such a combination could provide the greatest opportunity and flexibility for the least cost, and all programs of the Instructional Resources System would be serliced by the system. The recommendations stress'that every effort should be made to expand the use of electronic technologies in the educational process..(SM) ************************,i********************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. nevertheless, items of marginal * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the 'EPIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original., *********************************************************************** 1 -1; 11 < HE TEXAS EDUCATIONALTELECOMMUNICATIONS STUDY PREPARED BY . THE EDUCATIONAL ,DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AUSTIN, TEXAS FOR THE TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY SUMMER, 1975 4.1 4 fi Ff:: .This study has been prepared by Educational Development Corporation 2813 Rio Grande Austin, Texas 78705 It was prepared under contract with the Texas Education Agency, and paid for out of public funds. Tnus, there is no copyright on the material, which is considered to be in the pub- lic domain. Further, any opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily tho'se of the Texas Education Agency nor of any other state officials. - The-Illustration of the electronic steer portrayed on the title page was made available through courtesy of HONEYWELL INFORMATION'SYSTEMS. 00U-STION0 cAN 4r qc C.) ( 0)* 407 U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EoucvloNaWELFARE NATIOWAA.INSFITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO OUCED EXACTLY A5 RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATiNG IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MUTATION POSITION OR POLICY ABSTRACT This report is the product of the Texas Education Telecommunications_Studyand reflects the problems and solutions involved in providing telecommunicationssupport to education- A, al technology. The study is, in fact, a context analysis- -that is, it comprises tne de- termination of whethel, or not a problem exists, si5ecjfication of the problem,collection and analysis of informatidn related to the problem, identification ofpossible alterha- tive solutions, and evaluation of these solutions, followed by logicalconclusions and recommendations. In the process of carryi.ng out this analysis,the authors delineated the objectives that a telicommupitations system snould-meet, and. by'examining all the various factors involved, lilted the criteria that snou',o ce satisfied. -A sampling _survey was conducted todetermine problems and needs; the resoonses to many questions were statistically analyzed,and trends were identified. -*'Existing networks and systemsin Texas were examined for potsible use or extension, and successful systems in other states and other locations werealso examined . The factors and circumstances affecting the availability,of software, aswell as those re-' 'bating to its inevitable scarcity, were identified. Finally, the structures of education, technology, and telecommunications during the period from 10 to 20 years inthe future were hypothesized. (This period is viewed as the probable operating span for anytechnology selected today.) The. implications of ell of these facts were brought.together in an overall'analysis. and specific technologies which failed to attain the objectives or to satisfyessential criter- ia were eliminated. Through further analyses and comparisons, thecc;mpting technologies were eventually reduced to five. Texas has a strong commercial CATV system already in existence, andin'the course of,thi's study it became apparent that these nets could be extended, readily and fairlyinexpensive- ly to reach almost,all public schools. This would bring live and recorded audiovisual programs, whether local,regional, or network, into the classrooms. Additional narrow- , network,.Could also bring CAI/CMI tO each . band channels, leased from within the same CATV learning centers, campus. These technologies seem durable and could even extend into home thus augmenting the schools' capabilities. The'technoiogies also offer fairly simple Oper- ation, decentralized planning '(for local needs), greaterindividualization, and more teach- er time freed for,assisting and,counselingstudents. And, finally, theie methods are com- patible with tee needs and objeCtives of the Instructional Resourtts Systemfor Texas. The study places.heavg emphasis on the needforproper planning, for full participation in the planning, and, most of all, for adequateplanning for.the change processes that must occur at all levels and with all personnel who areinvolved, either centrally or pe- ripherally. ) iii 4 A PREFACE If any reader has stopped here to read thePreface, it is probably only out of curiosiZy about the title of the report and theexpectation of finding an explanation for it. This.is, correctly, the first order of Prefacebusiness. Back in the early days of'teleohone communications, contact wasfrequently lost for a host of reasons. Re-establishment of voice communication was awkward, because the two:parties involved could be sureof good contact On- ly when they both could hear each other; thus,both had to keep trying at various adjustments were made. Rather than "Testing, one, two, three..-..", etc., or the more sophisticated"Can-you hear me now?", the standard phrase was,"How now brown cow?" This particular verbalism had the quality of re- petitious assonance, a necessary characteristicbecause it frequently was difficult to distinguish the human voice from themultifold squeals,whis- tles, hums, scratches, blasts, howls,,blurps,hisses, and'other static that occurred on the line. If such a signal came through, the response was usu- - ally.either the same phrase in return, or "I read youloud and clear." To us, "How now brown cow?" has a similarsignificance--we see a need to es- tablish 'communication at several levels. We see a need for educators (teach- ers, administrators, supportpersonnel) to gain a better awareness and under- 5tanding'of.the technologies available, to initiateinnovative programs and projects as a result of optimum decision-making,and to be able to use these methodologies' and devices in a'changing soCietywith an ever-tightening rate educators not only of change. We °recognize the ,requirement' or these same to be unafraid,of'change themselves, butto convey this feeling to their stu- dents and to 6ther persons as well. 'Itis essential_to bridge the generation in communi- gap in all areas, and it isimportant that all these improvements cations take place within the realm of theproposed Instructional Resources System (a comm unications'challenge initself). For any or all of these events to transpire, we must firSt-conV-incethreader that some action is needed. Outtudy methodology has been what someeducators call a "coif ext Ahalysis.' In simple terms, a context analysisidentifies and describes,igrdblemfes- tiblishes. its parameters, considers alternativesolutions, s#parate*out the chaff,.delineates options, and points outthe most likely dir#PtionOn to it ormir con- which to proceed.'We spent nearly half of the nine-month tract delimiting and cescribing the P and collecting intt-organizing -information, _Several weeks, were then devotedto consolidatiOn, review, ana- Our lysis, and discussion, together with periodsof writing and rewriting. course was circular, in the senseof returning to 'subjects and .refining, rather than moving in a straight linefrom start to finish.