cIJ&5/conf. 802/10 2 8 SEP.

1gyj Paris, 12 June 1995 Ori@naI:

English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

International Roundtable on Cultural and Educational Functions of Public Service Broadcasting UNESCO,
Paris, 3-5 July 1995

Educational Application of Interactive Television Project Proposal Prepared by UNESCO and

ITU CII.95/CONF.802/LD.

1. RATIONALE FOR THE PROJECT The pilot project proposed in this document addresses a dual problem.
First and foremost, hundreds of millions of people all over the world, particularly girls and women, remain
deprived of even the most fundamental opportunities to learn. The other part of the problem is that new
information technologies, able to improve access to learning, remain insufficiently exploited. -. Never has the
problem of basic education been so critical and never have the means to resolve the problem been so vast, but
these means have thus far been largely unavailable toeducators. There is thus a great need to explore
emerging technological options for educational applications targeting the excluded, so as to ensure that
technological development will respond to such needs and that standards will be adopted that take educational
uses into account. The present pilot project will concentrate on the adaptation, use and development of the
technology of interactive television (interactive TV) in the context of the educational needs in developing
countries, focusing on the specific problem of the training of underqualified primary school teachers. It will be
situated in one or more countries with large unreached populations and substantial experience and
infrastructure in the area of educational TV. The project integrates educational and technological approaches
and builds on cooperation between the public and private sectors. It will be seen as having been successful if it
helps significantly in meeting the learning needs of the audiences concerned and provides experience in the
development of educational use of interactive TV that can guide future applications.

2. CONTEXT
2.1. The need for Education for All (EFA) Conventional education systems are increasingly unable to respond
to the rising demand for learning and, in addition&ten have to cope with declining budgets. The world counts
close to a billion illiterates and about 130 million children who cannot benefit from primary education. Those
who do go to school very o&n end up with insufficient or inappropriate learning achievements. The problem is
due to lack of capacity of the formal delivery infrastructure as well as often a poor quality teacher force. This
problem was considered at the highest level by concerned governments and international or@zations during
the World Conference on Education for All held in Jomtien, Thailand in March 1990. The World Declaration on
Education for All and the Frameworkfor Action to meet Basic Learning Needs, which emanated from the
Conference, call for the use of multiple delivery modalities and of modem communication media to open up
learning opportunities to all. The important task ahead is to include the excluded, to reach those who have
been deprived of their most fundamental leaming rights due to factors of age, time, location, culture, and
circumstance. Consultations following upon Jomtien have specifically underlined the potential of distance
education in accomplishing this task, in the area of in-service teacher education as well as in directly reaching
neo- literates and marginalized groups of learners.

2.2. The importance of interactivity in distance education Quality learning means far more than just the delivery
of information from a source (teacher) to a receiver (learner). The learner should be encouraged to take an
active part in the learning process and, while actively using information, integgate new knowledge into existing
knowledge patterns. This exchange, shared processing and enhancement of information requires
communication mechanisms that can take care of interaction between learners and a learning facilitator as well
as among the learners. Interactivity in the teaching/learning process is important at different levels. It ailows, for
instance, for the process to be corrected as a function of the learner’s progress. Getting information back from
the learner is also important to effectively manage a system which takes care of large numbers of learners at
the same time. Interactivity is furthermore important in establishing dialogue with and among the learners, a
feature which has long been recognired as a key to effective learning. In a system in which the different parties
can fully interact with each other, information traffic will no longer go only in one direction with consequent over
emphasis on the role of the teacher at the expense of that of the learners. Learners can, besides their interest
in their own learning, also contribute to the learning of others, and teachers can, in addition to their traditional
role, be learning as well. Finally, non-interactive distance education systems have long been known for their
incapacity to keep learners motivated, resulting in poor performance and completion rates. The role of
interaction in ensuring that students feel that they are part of the learning environment, as if they were in a real
classroom, cannot be underestimated.

In summary, interactivity in education supports the following functions: .

 provision of corrective system feedback .
 provision of system management information .
 establishment of dialogue .
 encouraging the participants in the learning system to assume different roles .
 sustaining the learner% motivation.

2.3. A pilot project in educational use of interactive television Television, because of its wide availability and
natural user interface, has been in use for several decades to deliver educational programmes both in
industrialized and developing countries. Although this medium has often be seen supplemented by others, such
as print, experience with interaction has been rather limited. This has mainly been restricted to the exchange of
written information, the inclusion of direct face-to-face contact, and the use of telephone, fax or data
communication in addition to the primary video channel. Interactive TV, where the TV viewer can
instantaneously respond to and/or control the programme through a special return channel, holds great
potential for the improvement of the interactive capabilities of braodcast learning systems. This technolo,o
gives the instructional designer many more options than those that those traditionally available. It is of the
greatest importance that such capabilities be tested in educational settings, so as to ensure that future
development of this technology and partictularly the standards under preparation by the ITU take into account
possible educational uses. The proposed pilot project aims at providing an opportunity to do so in contexts that
are relevant to the needs of developing countries. The experiences of this pilot project with interactive TV will
also help elucidate the potential use of other media in education an interactive way. Although the project will be
based on existing (largely analogue) TV technology, it will take account of foreseen developments of digital
compression technology which will, in the medium term or earlier, spawn additional possibilities to generate
interaction. Thanks to these future developments, the various communication streams (voice, data, graphics,
computer conferencing, etc.) will be able to be integgated and used more efficiently.

2.4. Project planning steps . . Taking account of the above brief, a planning meeting was held in Paris at
UNESCO Headquarters from 14 to 16 March 1995 to formulate the requirements for a joint ITU/UNESCO pilot
project on the use of interactive TV in the context of the Education for All objectives. In the meeting experts in
educational technology from Brazil, E,oypt and South Africa identified by UNBSCO,‘together with
telecommunication specialists working with the JTU, discussed and developed the details of the project
presented in this document. The document will be reviewed by the ITU-D Study Group 2 in its meeting of l- 11
May and will then be circulated by UNESCO to potential host countries. The representatives of interested
Member States will be invited, along with representatives of interested industrial partners and donor agencies,
to a round table to be convened by the lTU in September 1995 where decisions on implementation and funding
modalities will be taken.

3. PROJECT OBJECTIVES The pilot project will explore the possibilities to improve education for all in
developing countries with large unreached or under-served populations, using the emerging capabilities of
interactive TV.

In view of the essential role played by teachers in the Education for All context, the project will concentrate on
in-service teacher training and support for primary education teachers, aiming to:

improve the qualifications of under-qualified teachers to a minimum satisfactory professional level,

improve teacher performance, and
improve teacher self-esteem and motivation.

While achieving the above objectives, it will aim to prove that interactive TV can, over a period of about three
years, make a significant impact in this area and provide a model for future developments.

In above context, the pilot project will specifically aim to:

1. introduce teachers in the participating countries to the methodologies, benefits and future potential of
interactive TV;
2. assess the appropriateness of interactive TV for Education for All in the participating countries and in the
developing countries in general;
3. provide feedback on educational needs to the standardization effort on interactive TV of the International
Telecommunication Union.

4. BENEFYICIARIES The direct beneficiaries of the project will be the teachers who participate in the teacher
training programmes. Attention will also be paid to the training of educational and media specialists in the
development and use of interactive television programmes. Jn view of the pilot nature of the project, the results
will also serve planners and developers of education, in host country(ies) and other developing countries, who
will benefit from the experiences gamed for future applications.

Finally, the project will benefit the world education, telecommunication and media
communities at large, through the wide dissemination of the results and their
incorporation into the ITU standardization processes concerning interactive TV.

5. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

5.1. Site location One or more countries will be identified to serve as hosts for the
pilot projectThey will be selected from partner countries of the Joint Distance
Education Initiative of the nine high-population developing countries (DE9), and
other countries that can be associated with the initiative on the basis of large
numbers of developing under-qualified primary school teachers and substantial
communication infrastructure, including solid experience in television production.

Three types of target site can be specified, all involving schools in underpriviledged
or under-developed areas:

a. Urban site. Teachers would be trained at an existing local training institute such
as a college of education, where the telecommunications infrastructure (including
possibly e-mail) can be expected to be in place.

b. Per&urban site, for example a squatter settlement about 10 - 20 kilometres from a

major urban centre. Teachers might not easily be able to cOme regularly to a local
training institute. It should be possible to arrange electricity, telephone and television
for the project, although these facilities will probably not be in place before the
project starts.

c. Rural site. There would be no electricity or telephone. Television coverage by

satellite will be possible, but ground facilities will probably not already be in place.
The schools will typically be rudimentary and widely scattered, and the teachers
poorly trained. Road access may not be possible in certain areas. It should be noted
that some host countries might be interested in targetting only one or two types of
sites for piloting.

5.2. Educational scenario

A self-contained course on a specified topic will be developed. It will be based on
two-hour interactive TV modules. The modules will consist of short video sessions
(about 15 minutes long to facilitate their parallel use in non-interactive video). The
TV modules will be supported by print materials. At the central studio, a facilitator,
assisted by at least two subject experts, will be present during the course delivery to
monitor the educational process and respond to queued communications from the
learning sites, either during or after the transmission. A computer facility (Production
Data Management System - PDMS) will beavailable to manage a database on
learner responses, to provide for information retrieval, and to analyze and present
data generated during the course. In each host country, three different groups of
about fifty learners will be formed at each type of target site (a maximum of nine
groups of fifty learners per country, if all three types of site are targetted). Each
group of learners will be assisted by one local facilitator. At each learning site, one
TV monitor (at least 21 inches in size) should be foreseen to serve up to eight
students. 4 -- ..,-- “1” .._. I I. _I _.___.”

In order to provide interactivity, a return channel will permit real time two-way voice,
data and graphics communication between the learning sites and the central studio
and among the learning sites. The interface equipment required with each monitor
will be a numeric keypad with one-line LCD display (one for each learner, i.e. up to
eight per monitor), a microcomputer with standard monitor and keyboard (one per
site) and a fax terminal (one per site). E-mail exchange among all of the sites and
the studio should also be foreseen, as well as teletext capability (one control
interface per monitor). -. 5.3. Technical specifications To the extent possible, the
educational interactive TV system for education should be independart of the
specific transmission channel chosen, through the use of a layered architecture,
specified interface characteristics and an effective configuration and management
system under software control. This arrangement allows the use of a number of
differing distribution and interactivity channels, selectable in the configuration
software, and enables future extensibility to accommodate enhancements to the
educational application or to the technical infrastructure. Different systems, based
either on terrestrial or satellite configurations, will be developed for each of the target
site types, depending on the available technical infrastructure at these locations. The
main components of these systems are: (9 Network and Site Controllers (ii)
outbound video, audio and data link (iii) return path (iv) production control facility.
The Network Controller and Site Controllers are software controlled processors to
provide interactive communications management, user interface and site support
functions. The video, audio and data communication functions include video and
audio transmission using either conventional analogue broadcasting or satellite
techniques. Provision is made for the use of d&&al compression, when possible, to
improve efhciency. A return path from the user to the studio is provided via a digital
link, carrying a prioritised multiplex of data, digitized voice and fax signals. A
Production Control Unit (PCU) is interfaced to the Network controller for set-up,
operations and message management, and linked with a computer system (PDMS)
for the handling of educational tasks, data bases, student records, etc. The detailed
specifications and schematic diagrams of the system are given in Annexes 1 and 2.
5.4. Pilot project team

The project team will consist of an international team of experts in

telecommunication and education, and national implementation teams in the host
countries. The international expert team will be responsible for the overall design of
and technical advice to the project. The national teams will provide the necessary
input for the development of locally adapted systems for interactive television and be
responsible for the national implementation of the project. Close collaboration
between the different partners will be required in order to adapt the specialized
hardware and so&ware to the needs and possibilities of the local situations. 5 --- -
-_ .”
5.5. Training of production, educational and technical personnel The training of staff
at all levels in the eflicient and effective use of the interactive distance-learning
system will be a key element in the implementation of the pilot project. Although the
use of TV for distance learning is relatively well known, the inclusion of interactivity
adds a new dimension to all steps of the process of producing, present&, * delivering
and reacting to the programmes. The work programme therefore includes suf5cient
training to ensure that the users at all levels are conversant the full capability of the
pilot system, its efficient use and its maintenance. Extensive activity in cooperative
conceptualization and testing will help consolidate the knowledge and experience of-
the national teams in addition to ensuring appropriate adaptation to the local context.
5.6. Implementation schedule A start date of 1 January 1996 is foreseen, by which
time the project approval, funding and host country agreement should be completed.
If this target is met, the pilot project should be functional at some sites by 1 January
1998 and fully functional at all sites shortly thereafter. The planning details will be
defined by the project teams responsible for specific host site implementations. A
tentative schedule of activity is given as Annex 4 on the basis of the above targets .

6. INPUTS

6.1. Governments

Participating governments will commit themselves to the project by making available

existing technical and educational infrastructure, e.g. satellite capacity, broadcasting
and studio facilities, and learning centres. They should also be prepared to accept
the temporary inconvenience and/or additional expenses for existing services which
may accompany the development of new technical applications within the existing
infrastructure.

Staff for the national implementation team will be seconded to the project from
existing local human resources (see Annex 3).
activity should be seen as an essential project element and may reveal areas where
further enhancements can lead to increased &ciency. From an educational
viewpoint, the evaluation framework will foresee the collection of base-line data on
the skills, knowledge and attitudes of the target group and the monitoring of relevant
parameters at mid-course and at the end of the experiment for teachers trained by
interactive TV. The results will be compared to, and interpreted in the context of,
results obtained with teachers trained by other methods. . Close activity-based
technical monitoring will also take place throughout the project on a day-to-day basis
as a responsibility of the project team. The project will be concluded with an
independent evaluation to establish that the systems developed, based on mature
and purpose-built modules, are educationally, technically, operationally and
economically viable within the given context.

8. RISKS AND SUSTAINABILITY The pilot project is intended to develop a model

for the use of interactive television within a @zn educational context. The
effectiveness of this model, and its applicability to other contexts, can only be
determined from the success of the project in both technical and educational terms.
Possible risk factors such as resistance to innovation and problems of technical
maintenance will be addressed in the project design. Natural resistance to
technological innovation for educational purposes will be minim&d through inclusion
of a sensitization programme at the national and international policy levels at the
start and the end of the project which will build on the project plans and results and
seek to involve all stakeholders in the development of the project. The design of the
interactive TV modules of the pilot project will be based on current technologies in
television production and distribution and in telecommunication that are suffciently
advanced to offer acceptable performance at relatively low cost with low levels of
risk concerning technical sustainability. The foreseen training of specialised staff in
the maintenance of the technical equipment and infrastructure will further reduce this
risk. Furthermore, since the design of the system makes use of computer software in
the execution of most of the main tasks, new or revised tasks and improved
interactive communication channels and methods can be included as needed. The
system is thus expected to be operationally and technically sustainable for a
considerable period beyond the turn-on date. 9. OTHER RELATED PAST OR ON-
GOING PROJECTS The proposed pilot project will be implemented in the context of
the Joint Initiative on Distance Education of the nine high-population developing
countries. Heads of these nine countries meeting in Delhi in December 1993,
expressed their concern with the inability of conventional systems to address the
problems of access to and quality of basic education for all, and adopted a policy to
explore alternative ways to tackle educational problems, specifically targeting the
area of teacher training and reaching neo-literates. In this context, the experiences
gained from the pilot project will be of interest in finding new and improved ways to
tackle identified educational problems.
Related activities in Member States have been supported by UNESCO in areas
such as interactive radio instruction in Portuguese-speaking African countries (IEU-
PALOP), and the use of interactive television at university level (UNESCO Regional
Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean - OREALC).

Annex 1: TECHNICAL SYSTEM SPECIF’ICATIONS 1. General Description’ The

system architecture for the interactive television system for education is specified to
be, to the extent possible, independent of specific transmission channels, through
the-use of a layered architecture, specified interfaces and an effective configuration
and management system under software control. This arrangement allows the
selection of a variety of distribution an& interactivity channels through software
configurations and enables future extensibility to accommodate enhancements to
the technical infrastructure or to the educational system. Annex 2 shows a block
diagram of the system in terrestrial and satellite configurations. The system consists
of the following essential elements:

Network Controller (located at the studio) Video, audio and data link (typically
terrestrial or satellite broadcasting ). Interactive return and command link (using
PSTN or VSAT). Site Controller (located at the remote sites) User Control Unit (KU,
located at the user display point). The user control unit may be configured to support
differing display and interface arrangements User display (TV receiver at user
display point) Production Control Unit (PCU) Production Data Management System
(PDMS), a resource database interconnected to the PCU by a high speed local
network. The Network and Site Controllers are software controlled processors to
provide interactive communication management, user interface and site support
functions. 2. Video, Audio and Data Link These communication functions include
video and audio (two channel) transmission using either conventional analo,oue
broadcasting techniques (NTSC, PAL, SECAM) or satellite techniques. Provision is
made for the use of di&tal compression to allow digital terrestrial television
broadcast (DTTB) or digital satellite techniques in the future to enhance efXciency
and reduce operational costs, while adding additional flexibility. This link operates
uni-directionally from the studio to the user terminal. Provision is made to carry d&l
data, in teletext format, in the VBI of the video signal. . 3. Return Path ’ For a
detailed consideration of the components and the educational and technical
concepts used in the pilot project, see dot. ITU-R JSC-lo-ll/[zzz]

A return path from the user to the studio is provided via a digital link carrying a
prioritized multiplex of data, digitized voice and fax signals at a rate in the range of
10 to 64 kb/s,. When transmitted on analogue channels, an appropriate modem is
included. The return path is managed by the associated forward path carrying a
similar multiplex of data, digitized voice and fax signals, including link management
data. -. 4. Telecommunication Requirements The video, audio and data paths are
provided by conventional broadcast channels on terrestrial broadcast transmitters
(VHF or UHF) or on communication satellites in the Ku band. Future implementation
may make use of DTTE3 transmission or digital satellite transmission, both using
compression to improve efficiency. The interactive return/management channel may
be implemented by PSTN voice channels (with modem), by cable and/or radio links,
ISDN or other suitable digital channels or by digital hubless VSAT technology on Ku
band communication satellites. Appropriate current system configurations are
maintained in the Network Controller software. Data rates in the range of 10 to 64
kb/s should be supported. In the case of the use of dial-up PSTN channels, set-up
and release of the channels will be handled on a session basis to minimize delays
and uncertainties in the system. 5. Production Infrastructure The interactive system
is designed to operate synergistically with conventional production systems for
educational programming. A purpose-designed Production Control Unit (PCU) is
interfaced to the Network controller for set-up, operations and message
management. A high speed data link (such as Ethernet) will connect the PCU to a
computer system that handles the educational tasks, databases, student records,
etc. 6. Specialized Hardware and Software The technical resources required for the
pilot project consist of several custom computer software packages, as well as a
number of relatively standard micro-processor based computer systems,
communication channels and specialized control/display systems for the student
stations and for the production studio. The computer so&ware packages will ensure
system resource management, communication management and operation,
educational production operations, student interaction and other applications (e-mail,
Internet and other resource access, stand alone local training, etc.) during periods
when the system is not required for the prime function of interactive TV. The
following units require special attention in the implementation of the pilot project
since they may require custom solutions. (4 Network and Site Controllers. These
units provide the network management, set-up and interactive functions, along with
the interfacing to the associated control units. They will consist of communication
management and general purpose processing elements, operating under the control
of customized software. (b) User and Production Control Units. These units provide
user-friendly interfaces to the users and instructors. They include digital and voice
communications (for both system level and peer level communications), control of
local interactivity and other digital services, including fax and e-mail capability. 10
Different configurations may exist at specific distance education sites, as a function
of the level and thrust of the educational activities, the number of students involved
and the physical infrastructure available. . The UCU may be dynamically re-
contigured during a session or between sessions from software downloaded over
the management channel or from local storage, thus all&ing considerable flexibility
in interactive programme design. During out-of-service periods, the interactive
network and the UCU may be used for other applications such as e-mail, Internet
access etc. - The remaining elements of the technical system will draw on
commonly-used television and telecommunications devices and equipment, and
commercially available items are expected to be usable for the pilot project. 7. The
Application Environment The interactive TV system may make use of a number of
different distribution and communication channels, depending on availability cost,
etc. The table below compares the characteristics of the system configuration
foreseen for the different types of target site discussed in section 5.1. of the main
text.

The Application Environment LOCATION DELlk-ERY AVAILABLE COMMS. CHANNEL Po%-ER coi%mm-r
TERRESTR’L SATELLITE FSTNLINE PSTN RADIO VIM SAT URBm GQNv.Tv REcoMm USABLE COSTLY AVAIL O-RI 0
SUBURB&?4 comf. TV AVAIL NOT RECOM.cosny AVAIL AT SOME SOW fINFOR== W-W AVAIL SOME GENERATOR
HOUSlXG) SITES/ POWERRILL BE NEEDED DEEP RuRtL UNAVAIt REc0w31. UNAVAIL UNAVAIL REc0Ma1. SOLAR 11