Reaching Rural/Remote Americans

“The Digital Divide: The Most Interesting Facts May Be Found in the Ditch”

Dr. Janet Poley, President
American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC)

Albuquerque, New Mexico
November 4, 2000

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  1. Reaching Rural/Remote Americans
    “The Digital Divide: The Most Interesting Facts May Be Found in the Ditch”
  2. It’s About Place & Money
    • Who’s Taking the Distance Out of Distance Education?
    • What’s Rural - What’s Remote
    • Concentration of Poverty/Deconcentration of Opportunity
    • Formal and Informal Economy
    • It’s Not About Advanced BW nor Connectivity Alone
  3. Heterick Comments on DD
    • “We should worry about the unhappily slow roll-out and high cost of high speed digital connectivity. To produce really compelling learning applications, we will most often require megabit access."
  4. The Real Digital Divide
    • “At the current roll-out rate of our phone companies’ digital subscriber line technology and the cable companies symmetrical broadband services, we will be severely limited in what we can design in the way of new learning environments for quite some time to come.”
  5. ADEC Vision No More Back Roads
    • Reach into communities less than 25,000
    • HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, Hispanic Serving
    • Developing Countries

  6. Who Do Most of Underserved Schemes Really Serve?
    • Not the “distant”
    • Not the place bound
    • Not the less educated
    • Not the educators
    • Not the national interest
    • Not universal in service

  7. The Center & Periphery
    • Geography
    • Economics
    • Culture
    • Demographics
    • Technology
    • Community
  8. Good Internet
    • DSL
    • Satellite Wireless
    • LMDS
    • Radio wireless
    • Protocols

  9. So Who’s Out There
    • How Are the Schools?
    • Farmers - Where Are the Off- Farm Jobs?
    • Mainstreet - What Are the Impacts?
    • Teachers - Are There Enough?
    • Seniors - What Are They Doing?
    • Doctors - Where Are the Schools?

  10. So What’s Out There?
    • Schools
    • Taverns
    • Casinos
    • Clinics
    • Railroads
    • Mountains
    • Desert

  11. Improving Access and Applications
    • Bandwidth offers “realism” with instructional potential for more concrete and complex symbols and visuals
    • Bandwidth offers “voice” and affect
    • Two-way offers active engagement and adaptation to learners
    • Synchronous offers immediacy and responsiveness