From Chalkboard to Keyboard Transcript

[bell ringing] 

- Announcer: When Wisconsin needed frontier schools, we built teachers' colleges. [upbeat music] When the GI Bill and the Baby Boom brought a surge in enrollment, we added and expanded college campuses. 

Now, a different challenge lies before the University of Wisconsin System. How to make the giant leap from chalkboard to keyboard. [upbeat music] Technology is changing the way America works, plays, and lives. It's also changing the way we teach and learn. Technology makes it possible for every student in a lecture hall to have a front row seat and every music student to understand Mozart electronically. [classical music] Technology means a student can ask questions of a professor, join a discussion group, or register for a class in the middle of the night, on a weekend from a residence hall, home, or workplace. 

Learning technology is also at the heart of a concept called "distance education," which uses computers, video equipment and telecommunications to bring together students and professors from around the state, the country, and the world. 

Through distance education, the UW System can overcome barriers of geography and time, creating greater access to the UW and new learning opportunities for the people of Wisconsin. A business site can become a college classroom. To better serve its customers in Japan, employees at Miller Electric in Appleton are learning technical Japanese at a distance. 

- If I had to run down to Madison or even over to another company it would be a lot more difficult, just walking down to the conference room and turning everything on is really nice. 

- Announcer: Distance education also makes it possible for students at different locations to learn together electronically, saving the driving time, effort, and cost required to convene at just one site. Technology such as this can meet the learning needs of people of all ages, in all places, when they need it, at their convenience. Technology increases access to education and helps avoid the cost of adding duplicate programs, but access isn't the only benefit of learning technology. Teachers who use it and the students who benefit from it can work in new, creative, and effective ways. In this botany class, a computer has changed the way students learn.

- It does bring a very large class, which might be as big as 20 students together because we can all look at the same thing at the same time. And that was not possible before. Twenty students cannot all look down the same microscope, but they can all look at the same TV screen. 

- Announcer: Distance learning technology can mean affordable, limitless access to education from anywhere in Wisconsin to anywhere in the world.

- What did you see on the first 10 minutes of the film? Can someone describe for me what they saw?

- Announcer: John Thompson, a teacher at Fritsche Middle School in Milwaukee, dreamed of making South Africa's historic events real to his students. With help from UW-Milwaukee, he connected two schools a world apart by electronic mail. 

- You heard about the elections that will be taking place. You heard there might be some violence. We hope you get a good leader for your country. We also hope that nothing happens to you or your friends.

- Announcer: An exchange of videotapes helped build further understanding and friendship between students in Milwaukee and South Africa. Distance learning technology is a sound investment for Wisconsin. It's a tool that can help Wisconsin compete effectively with the rest of the nation and the rest of the world. Distance education can ensure that Wisconsin's current and future workforce is prepared for the critical challenges of an increasingly global and technical society, helping to keep the state's economy strong and stable. 

What will it take to make all this happen? First, Wisconsin must invest in the technical infrastructure. For generations, we've built and maintained roads so that cars and trucks can reach any point in the state. We must do the same with electronic networks, finishing the job of connecting people to information everywhere in Wisconsin. Second, we must renovate some of our classrooms, adapting existing space to the changing needs of learning technology. 

At the same time, we must install, maintain and upgrade the equipment that serves students in these classrooms and at remote sites. Third, and most important, just as the business world must keep employee skills updated, the UW must also invest in our faculty and staff, developing new ways of teaching that incorporate learning technology requires training and time. Professor Frank Gonzalez teaches students at eight different campuses simultaneously using an interactive computer system called audio graphics. He understands the need for training. 

- When I first started, I was teaching myself, and it's a lot of work. Now, if the faculty have training, I could tell someone shortcuts, what works on the system, how to save time, and so on. So, training's extremely important. It makes the whole process of preparation, which is a lot of time, much more efficient. The hardest part is maybe the first year. So you really have to guide and support the instructor as much as possible 

- Announcer: Time, training, and tools; we must provide all three. Wisconsin will benefit from this investment. All citizens will have greater access to their public university system. Faculty will be able to teach in new and more effective ways. Students will be better prepared for a competitive global future. And the UW System will be better able to serve the expanding educational needs of the state. 

Distance education is an essential investment in the future of Wisconsin and its people. A key element of the Wisconsin Idea in the information age. The leap from slate chalkboards to electronic keyboards won't be easy and it won't happen overnight, but we must not delay. 

Many of those Fritsche Middle School students will be UW System freshman in the year 1999. Wisconsin's one room schoolhouse of the past must become the global electronic schoolhouse of the future. The key to that future is at our fingertips. [upbeat music]