Speeches

Evolving the Links -- Public Television & Higher Education

It is a pleasure for me to participate in this important dialogue today.

I am especially pleased that Penn State is playing an integral role in this national dialogue. We often refer to Penn State as the birthplace of public television and we have more than 100 years of experience in providing education to students at a distance. So it is most fitting that we participate in this "evolving the links" discussion today.

In 1892, Penn State delivered education to farmers via the rural free delivery system. Today, through our World Campus and Independent Learning we reach more than 23,000 students through distance education.

It was on our campus in April of 1952 that more than 100 leaders in education, broadcasting, and government gathered to accept a challenge from the FCC to begin a non-commercial educational television service.

On that spring day nearly five decades ago, the Honorable Paul S. Walker, then chairman of the FCC, announced that in response to petitions from educators, television channels had been set aside for educational use. Plans were made at Penn State that led to national educational television broadcasting and later to the Public Broadcasting Service, including Penn State's own WPSX-TV Channel 3. Although this important event took place almost a half a century ago, the spirit of cooperation and collaboration for public service envisioned on that day has continued over the years and is being refreshed today. Your participation in this event is true testimony to that continued energy and spirit.

I believe that distance education serves as a powerful vehicle for providing access to knowledge and that public television and public radio serve as powerful mediums for disseminating knowledge and for communicating with both urban and rural audiences.

I personally have enjoyed hosting my own weekly public television and radio show titled: "To the Best of My Knowledge" which is simulcast to a local audience and also uses streaming audio on the Internet to make the show accessible to Penn State alumni and friends worldwide. Topics for discussion have included everything from business ethics to organ transplants.

Throughout my academic career, I have been involved in public television and radio programming because I believe that it serves as an invaluable method for creating more informed citizens.

In the next few years the Internet and television will converge -- leading to a dynamic new learning environment for people of all ages. Many of you will be responsible for shaping the vision and serving as the driving force behind this initiative. And I believe that all of you recognize that we stand on the threshold of one of the most exciting developments since the advent of television: the conversion of the 50-year old analog television standard to a digital broadcast standard.

This technology allows us to experience dynamic, two-way interaction, rather than one-way passive absorption of information typical of a lecture or traditional television show. It will provide greater access to remote mass audiences and it will provide greater opportunity for engagement and collaboration.

We can:

• Educate children about civic responsibility;
• Share faculty expertise with communities, hospitals, and physicians about rural health issues and solutions; and
• Provide education and awareness on subjects such as the environment, science, business, history, music, and art by collaborating with our outreach units.

Penn State Public Broadcasting takes seriously its mission to link every citizen with timely information, learning opportunities and cultural richness. The mission of Penn State Public Broadcasting is to improve the quality of life for all of its diverse audiences, to extend the knowledge of the University through outreach activities, and to link people and ideas and foster lifelong learning through excellence in programming. While the shift to digital television opens new high-tech opportunities, the station's values and commitments are to provide service to audiences across the technology spectrum.

Drawing on the University's academic and outreach resources to create programs and partnerships, digital television will have profound impact on communities, schools, businesses, citizens, and millions of households we collectively serve nationwide. By adding the Internet technologies and distance education to this equation we can create tools for in-depth learning and the worldwide exchange of knowledge.

Digital technologies offer public television an entirely new range of tools to deliver programs and services. While commercial broadcasters look at digital television and see new opportunities to increase profits, we must look at the convergence of digital TV and distance education and see new, exciting ways of presenting the best in programs and services to our homes and schools and enhance the quality of life for our viewers.

I believe that the digital future is the pipeline through which technology finally catches up to the vision and mission of public television. At our WPSX-TV station and across the nation, public television programs focused on health, education, lifelong learning, workforce training, children and family, economic and community development, and university sports will be developed to fill this pipeline.

In a digital environment, we will be able to provide, not only full-length programs, but also small modules, online teacher support, and, through the World Campus, access to Penn State courses for teachers, administrators, counselors, and even cafeteria staff. Students in Pennsylvania could conduct real-time debates with their peers in California after exploring a multi-layered program on energy and the environment. Let me share some specific examples of the work we have under way at Penn State.

On-Course is a partnership of Public Broadcasting and education leaders nationwide. Penn State is a founding member of the group, which includes the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); WGBH, Boston; Thirteen/WNET, New York City; KET (Kentucky Educational Television); Nebraska Educational Television; and the California State University system, among others. The group is creating a nonprofit organization to develop and disseminate on-line and broadband educational content and services and provide access to the nation's best resources in professional training and lifelong learning. The goal is to create a strong and flexible education service for teachers in K-12 and ultimately to assist in lifelong learning. For example, content on earthquakes from PBS's Nova Series could be made available to teachers in the form of learning objectives, teacher manuals and videoclips.

Digital District is a partnership between Penn State Public Broadcasting and Ridgeway Area School District to increase student interest in science and achieve state and local science standards. The project has the potential to become a demonstration project for all Pennsylvania students. It involves determining which science standards need up-to-date supplemental teaching materials and reviewing WPSX-TV's resources to find materials correlated to these standards. Then small "chunks" or "digital objects" will be created for teachers in collaboration with the Eberly College of Science and the College of Education. Part of the project will involve training teachers to integrate digital objects into their curricula.

A new "Creating Health" initiative seeks to make a difference in the lives of people by motivating them to change their behavior for improved health. This project will take a multi-dimensional approach to health education and use public TV and radio, video, on-line resources, community-based activities and the established network of Penn State Cooperative Extension offices in each county of the state to reach people. The first program will address osteoporosis; future topics may focus on mental health, cardiac health, cancer, asthma, diabetes and obesity. During Phase 1, WPSX-TV will work with WITF-TV and WITF-FM in Harrisburg, to deliver the program to 40 counties in central Pennsylvania. Penn State's College of Medicine, College of Health and Human Development and College of Agricultural Sciences will provide the academic base for the program. The Penn State World Campus and the Division of Continuing Education also will play key roles in developing and disseminating educational programming. Ultimately, this model could be replicated nationwide

Penn State Public Broadcasting has played a key role in the advancement of athletics as well. The WPSX-TV production team has received the Mid-Atlantic Region's Outstanding Sports Series Emmy for "Center Court with Rene Portland." This marks the second Emmy for the women's basketball television program. The University has already started to experiment with broadcasting events over the Internet. This past year, Penn Staters around the world were given Web access to 85 athletic events through the GoPSU sports site. Penn State Public Broadcasting made the conversions to digital for audio webcasts of lacrosse, softball, soccer, and many other athletic events. In addition, they produced video webcasts of pre-game and post-game press conferences with Coach Joe Paterno. Future plans for sports programming include collaborations with other Big Ten institutions to share coverage of away games. WPSX-TV also hopes to increase broadcasts of gymnastics, wrestling, women's basketball, volleyball and other events.

Partners in Public Service is a project uniting libraries, museums and public television stations in outreach efforts that benefit the public. Penn State is administering this national initiative. The University Libraries partnered with Penn State Public Broadcasting to use technology to increase public accessibility for a Palmer Museum of Art exhibit. Penn State Public Broadcasting created an interactive Web site to accompany the museum exhibit, inviting children to take photos and submit them, along with some descriptive information. These photos are on the Web site.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the enormous challenges we face in meeting the FCC mandate. As we all know, the full potential of digital public television cannot be fully realized without significant investments of time for developing rich interactive content and money to cover conversion and equipment costs. The impact of these investments will reach far beyond the boundaries of our viewing areas. And the impact and opportunities outweigh the challenges. We must develop creative partnerships to fulfill the programming vision and we must articulate the value and impact of this new digital environment among our stakeholders who can provide the financial support needed to make the transition.

As we enter the Age of Digital Media with its potential to enhance our already high-quality public broadcasting content with new multicast and multi-channel capabilities, I am hopeful that we see the public policy makers and leaders from the public service media, public universities, and other public institutions sitting together to explore areas of common ground upon which we can create effective and responsive systems for learning and disseminating knowledge and creating two-way interaction.

Public television is making great strides in moving to a digital environment; public higher education is doing the same.