Education

In 1996, the cable industry made a national commitment to bring the advantages of high-speed Internet access via cable modems to all students and citizens through public schools and local libraries.

Cable's High Speed Education Connection has been a national success story with cable companies providing K-12 schools with a free cable modem and free high-speed Internet access. More than 6,000 schools and public libraries in more than 1,100 communities across the country are now receiving free high-speed Internet service. In California, almost 1,100 schools and 100 libraries have been wired.

Working on this program with local communities and others, cable companies have been able to initiate some exciting projects throughout the state:

Cox Communications' "Line to Learning" program provides high-speed Internet access to every school, while its model technology school (Clearwater) demonstrates the full opportunities of the information age to the surrounding communities. Cox is also part of a local collaborative partnership with other corporations and the Lemon Grove School District to provide home terminals, through Project "LemonLink" so families may access school resources and assignments.

Time Warner has connected over 110 public and private schools and 16 branch libraries in San Diego to its Road Runner online service, and waived charges for additional computer connections. The local City Council proclaimed a "Time Warner Cable Day" for its library efforts.

More Than Wires: Cable Educational Programs Improve Learning
In addition to connecting cable wires and providing hardware, cable also improves learning by bringing content and training programs to the classroom.

Cable in the Classroom - For more than 10 years this program has provided educational programming to more than 43 million students in 80,000 schools nation-wide. Over 8,500 cable companies and 38 cable pro-gram networks have invested more than $550 million to provide schools with over 600 hours of commercial free programming each month to complement curriculum. The program also includes training on how to integrate computer and video educational technologies into curriculum through a variety of lab and hands-on techniques. A recent report indicates that this program has helped our state students to learn. See http://www.ciconline.org/.

webTeacher - In 1997, the cable industry began providing free teacher training for Internet use. Specifically developed to assist the High-Speed Education Connection program, an 80-hour comprehensive instruction guide program is available for group or individual teacher training.

Teachers Converge on Cable Educator Day:
A Symposium on How Cable Can Help Teach

Educator Day at The Western Show highlights how cable technology and programming can assist teachers and students. Here in 1999: Lavonne McBroom, President of the California PTA, Delaine Eastin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Bill Nye, "The Science Guy" of Noggin Network.

Held annually at The Western Show (one of the largest cable/communications conventions in the nation), Educator Day brings together California cable operators, programmers, teachers and educators to discuss new approaches to learning. The event showcases cable's innovative network programming, technologies currently available in California schools and a program of educational speakers to motivate teachers.

P.E.G. Spells Educational TV
Cable operators often provide facilities, equipment and channel space for public, educational and government access over the cable networks - known as "PEG" access. California has a rich tradition of independent public access programming. Based on local community needs and demographics, the local programming on these channels is as divergent as the communities themselves.

P.E.G. Spells Educational TV
Cable operators often provide facilities, equipment and channel space for public, educational and government access over the cable networks - known as "PEG" access. California has a rich tradition of independent public access programming. Based on local community needs and demographics, the local programming on these channels is as divergent as the communities themselves.

In addition to local government meetings, communities have found the channels to be tools for providing educational programming and homegrown entertainment. Statewide cable operators provide an average of 3.3 P.E.G. channels per systems.

Statewide directory of PEG channels