Adult Learning Service (ALS) − 1 January, 1981
Submitted by Lisa Lehmberg
In 1981, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) established the Adult Learning Service (ALS), to help educational institutions meet the needs of adult distance learners. PBS distributed a comprehensive course catalog through ALS, and served as a liaison between educational institutions and telecourse producers. The original ALS catalog contained offered 7 courses. Eventually, the Adult Learning Service grew to the point where it served as a distance education liaison for over 190 public television stations and approximately 2000 colleges, with an enrollment of 500,000 students. However, the PBS Adult Learning Service was discontinued on September 30, 2005. According to PBS officials, this was due to educational institutions’ increased use of computer-based courses, online discussion groups, and online readings rather than the video-based courses provided by ALS.
References were retrieved on January 26, 2007, from the following websites:
Current.org www.current.org/education/ed0507adult.shtml Distance Learning at CPCC http://virtual.cpcc.edu/support/faq/details.asp?faq=whatdistancelearning USDLA Journal www.usdla.org/html/journal/SEP01_issue/techex06.html PBS Adult Learning Service www.pbs.org/als-r
Technological Developments in 1981
The IBM PC was first sold on the consumer market. It came with a 4.77 Mhz Intel 8088 microprocessor, and 16k of memory (expandable to 256k.) The price tag was $1565.
Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm TIME magazine named the computer “Man of the Year.” Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm BITNET computer network, an educational network connecting mainframe computers in universities around the world, was created at the City University of New York.
Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75878 The Hayes Smartmodem was introduced. It transferred data at 300bps, which was the average speed in 1981. January 26, 2007, from http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75878
In 1981, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) established the Adult Learning Service (ALS), to help educational institutions meet the needs of adult distance learners. PBS distributed a comprehensive course catalog through ALS, and served as a liaison between educational institutions and telecourse producers. The original ALS catalog contained offered 7 courses. Eventually, the Adult Learning Service grew to the point where it served as a distance education liaison for over 190 public television stations and approximately 2000 colleges, with an enrollment of 500,000 students. However, the PBS Adult Learning Service was discontinued on September 30, 2005. According to PBS officials, this was due to educational institutions’ increased use of computer-based courses, online discussion groups, and online readings rather than the video-based courses provided by ALS.
References were retrieved on January 26, 2007, from the following websites:
Current.org www.current.org/education/ed0507adult.shtml Distance Learning at CPCC http://virtual.cpcc.edu/support/faq/details.asp?faq=whatdistancelearning USDLA Journal www.usdla.org/html/journal/SEP01_issue/techex06.html PBS Adult Learning Service www.pbs.org/als-r
Technological Developments in 1981
The IBM PC was first sold on the consumer market. It came with a 4.77 Mhz Intel 8088 microprocessor, and 16k of memory (expandable to 256k.) The price tag was $1565.
Retrieved January 26, 2007 from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa031599.htm TIME magazine named the computer “Man of the Year.” Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm BITNET computer network, an educational network connecting mainframe computers in universities around the world, was created at the City University of New York.
Retrieved January 26, 2007, from http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75878 The Hayes Smartmodem was introduced. It transferred data at 300bps, which was the average speed in 1981. January 26, 2007, from http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=75878
Comments:
DistEd (January 27, 2007. 01:20pm)
Submitted by Lisa Lehmberg.
In 1981, the microcomputer was just beginning to be seen on the consumer market. However, microcomputers were expensive and few consumers owned one. Because distance education needed to be easily accessible by learners, it had to be delivered over a system that was more widely accessible than computers – namely, television! In other words, the wide availability of television led to the development and popularity of telecourses and the PBS Adult Learning Service (ALS).
Reference: Distance Learning at CPCC http://virtual.cpcc.edu/support/faq/details.asp?faq=whatdistancelearning
My opinion:
To meet the needs of consumers, distance education will always need to be delivered through systems that they can easily access or purchase. For the average consumer, brand-new technology is often too expensive to buy. (An example of this is the iPhone. It is very cool, but I can’t afford one. Neither can my friends.) I expect the delivery systems used in distance education to always use technology that is slightly older, simply because it is less expensive
DistEd (February 3, 2007. 07:39pm)
Submitted by: Anne McCallister. I totally agree with you, when new technology comes down in a price that is affordable to the consumer, new advances in distance education can become available. I still find conflicting software with the windows operating system that I am using on current classes simply because they have not written a more up-to-date book with a trail software attached. My opinion: The newest technologies should be trialed in Education first before it hits the market to work out any flaws and get the consumer interested in the product to use at home, but until it comes down in price to make it affordable it won't be out there to use.
DistEd (February 9, 2007. 09:09pm)
Submitted by : JIll Mohler. When I create interactive CDroms for Pearson Education, I have to make sure they are compatible with technology that is at least 10 years old to the latest out there. The CDs are for students who could be viewing them in school or at home so there are no restrictions on what platforms they might be using. It ends up costing Pearson more because I have to create different versions to work on different platforms. Most companies in the corporate world figure out what platform(s) their average viewer will be viewing the CD on and create only the needed versions on average to cut costs. The viewers with too old technology or the latest and greatest technology are out of luck. With technology changing so rapidly these days (you can figure a major upgrade every 2 years), there are a multitude of platforms out there at once. Do you create educational software for all which is more expensive to produce, or do you create educational software for the average viewer to cut costs which ends up leaving some viewers out of luck? Until technology slows down, I have a feeling this dilemma will be around for awhile.