15.2 Because of its reach, availability and motivational power, broadcasting should play a central role in creating an information society which is genuinely accessible to all. It will also be a key component in the realisation of the goal of life-long learning for all. The convergence of educational broadcasting and interactive media offers a tremendous opportunity and the potential for a major cultural shift in attitudes to learning and to information technology.
15.3 Broadcasters in the UK, particularly BBC and Channel 4, have a notable track record in promoting and providing education. The media already play a part in lifelong learning, through the Open University and the provision of high-quality specialist educational programmes, as well as in their everyday work of providing information, entertainment and knowledge. The rapidly developing technologies of communication will afford learners tremendous opportunities, overcoming many of the problems of geography, time and cost of learning. As we move towards the millennium and beyond and into a future underpinned by an information superhighway our public service broadcasters should have a major contribution to make. They already have a reputation for high quality content, years of experience of balancing public service and popularity and virtually universal access. When interactive capability is added to these strengths tremendous opportunities open up in relation to education.
15.4 Conventional linear broadcasts can achieve vivid impact with significant power both in awareness raising and information delivery. But a broadcast is not an intelligent medium. It cannot test understanding. Effective learning comes through dialogue. Traditionally this has involved teachers and other mediators. Interactive media, if they are responsive to users, begin to emulate aspects of a learning dialogue. Interactively has been shown to be a key feature of educational effectiveness. The learning environment shifts from one where information is transmitted to one where learning is supported.
15.5 The digital revolution offers the opportunity to move from passive consumption of broadest programmes to active learning via multi-media and on-line. The key to success will lie not in abandoning linear programming on mainstream channels but in combining the old with the new, linking programming on mass TV channels, dedicated digital channels and computers connected to the Internet. New digital technologies will create learning opportunities which are not dependent on being available at a particular time or place. Learning at home and outside conventional educational establishments will become more widespread - with implications for institutions, teachers, and content creators (like broadcasters) as well as individual learners. Tailoring learning resources to individual needs will eventually become possible.
15.6 Public service broadcasters are, or soon will be, in a position to make a significant contribution to lifelong learning. They will do this by helping to inspire mass demand, through additional promotional campaigns, based on near universal reach via TV and radio and by using mainstream broadcasts to motivate and inspire and to direct people to more targeted opportunities. They will also be in a position to offer friendly information and educational advice linked to programmes, via helplines and on-line and electronic brokering services connecting individuals to learning via digital databases and information banks. In addition they will be able to ensure a range and variety of delivery formats - analogue TV coupled to on-line CD ROM, video and print, expanding to education on new digital channels. They can both create and commission materials, designing compelling, interactive educational software using advanced digital technologies. And they will be able to link broadcasts and other resource packages to accreditation. Partnerships will be central to this new interactive future.
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