Connections

Creating new opportunities for lifelong learning

No doubt many of you, as I am, are excited by the potential for growth and renewal that the coming year holds for each of us.

For those of us who work at WHYY, a new year brings with it more chances to use our on-air programming and off-air services and events to enrich the lives of the people in the diverse communities that we serve.

This month, I am very excited to share with you information about a first-of-its-kind pilot project that represents yet another step in the growth of our Adult Learning Service and helps us continue to create unprecedented opportunities for lifelong learning in our region.

Through our Adult Learning Service, WHYY is pioneering the use of a high-quality, low-cost digital content delivery system known as datacasting. This innovative technology allows us to digitize a wealth of multimedia materials, including text files and video and audio clips, and transmit them directly to any computer that has a built-in digital tuner via our digital television signal.

WHYY began employing this technology in 2001 as part of our groundbreaking Digital TV Project, the first such initiative anywhere in the United States, installing computers at the Haddington Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia and at five child care centers in Delaware. We delivered lesson plans, video and audio clips and other curriculum material to staff members, who used these datacasts in a series of workshops that helped them better prepare their young students to start school.

Now, in partnership with the Workforce Investment Boards in Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties and through a generous grant from the Pennsylvania Public Television Network (PPTN), WHYY has installed computer workstations with built-in digital tuners at five locations in each county, including libraries, community centers and colleges, at no cost to the participating institutions.

WHYY is broadcasting adult basic education material, including 58 half-hour video segments and more than 700 pages of text from the existing programs "GED Connection" and "Workplace Essential Skills" developed by PBS Literacy Link, directly to the computer desktops for use by students who need to complete high school equivalency courses and entry-level workers who want to polish their workplace skills.

This datacasting system is so effective because such rich multimedia content is able to be transmitted to our partner sites much faster than is currently possible through a typical Internet connection, and it can be received and updated in minutes and stored in each computer's hard drive for later use, allowing the students to complete the work at their own pace.

As we have witnessed already through these partnerships, this emerging technology makes it possible for WHYY to achieve our goal of creating a more skilled and productive regional workforce. But perhaps what is most exciting about digital content delivery, however, is the limitless potential of this system to revolutionize the way people learn.

Whether the computers are in schools, offices or retirement communities, datacasting allows us to instantly transform any environment into a 21st-century learning center. WHYY's digital broadcast signal currently spans Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and all of Delaware, and as we continue to refine the datacasting system, we will work closely with PPTN to extend its reach and impact, while applying this technology across our service strands.

We made a promise to be the region's communications partner, and we are fulfilling that promise by seizing every opportunity to reach out to you, our Members, and the people in our diverse communities in new and different ways, making our interactions richer and more personal.

As always, we look forward to making connections with you and with our community partners in the New Year.

Best regards,
William J. Marrazzo
President and Chief Executive Officer