On the air - Interactive TV expands reach of classes

Katherine Parrish stood at the front of her class in Dempster Hall, looked at a large television screen on the back wall and asked, "Malden, Poplar Bluff, can you hear me?"

A few seconds later, two quiet voices murmured, "Yes," from speakers around the room.

"OK, then let's get started," Parrish said as she turned and headed to the board.

That's how Parrish started Wednesday's Grammars of English class at Southeast Missouri State University, and that's how she starts each of her Interactive Television (ITV) courses.

ITV classrooms allow classes like hers to be broadcast in real time to students in Kennett, Malden, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, where the classes would not usually be taught due to a lack of instructors.

Four ITV courses were offered at Southeast in 1995. In six years, the only thing that has changed has been an increase in the number of courses -- 25 this year -- and a decrease in technical difficulties.

That growth caused a demand for extra classrooms in the Poplar Bluff and Bootheel centers: Kennett, Malden and Sikeston. Phil Osborne, ITV operations supervisor at Southeast, said each of those centers will get a second ITV classroom in the next couple of years. The Sikeston room will be ready by the end of the year, while Kennett is currently seeking bids for a new room.

Also at career center

ITV courses aren't only for university-level students.

The new Career and Technology Center in Cape Girardeau has an ITV room and will offer its first courses next semester. But Rich Paine, assistant director of the center, said the classes won't likely be from Southeast. He said they are currently looking for classes not offered at Southeast such as a library sciences course taught at Central Missouri State University.

The classes offered at the Career and Technology Center will be available for all of the students, including those from the nine area high schools it serves.

Central High School principal Michael Cowan said when the new high school opens next fall next to the center, the uses for new technology will be endless.

"Once we're at the new school, we'll have golden opportunities," Cowan said. "I'm very interested at the opportunities to enrich our curriculum."

Cowan said he hopes eventually to have an ITV classroom in the high school so courses not readily available in Southeast Missouri can be taught there.

"We can move to a global curriculum," he said. "Students can pick up languages not traditionally taught in schools." Languages, he said, like Japanese and other Asian languages.

No matter what ITV courses are being taught, Cowan said, "being next to the career center is going to make that one of the most comprehensive education areas in this region."

Jackson High School principal Richard McClard said his school does not have ITV classrooms either, but he does have students who attend the center.

University students who currently are enrolled in ITV courses through Southeast say they wouldn't be able to finish their degrees without the classes.

'Pretty much the same'

Robin Crosno, a sophomore at the Kennett center, said not having to drive all the way to Cape Girardeau to take classes has made a huge difference for her.

"It would be really hard for me to have to drive all that way for just one or two classes per semester," she said.

Crosno is taking "Fundamentals of Search and Seizure" at the Kennett center, while her teacher is in Cape Girardeau.

"It's pretty much the same as a regular class," she said. "The only difference is I have to push a button to talk to the instructor."

Crosno's classmate, freshman Amy Geslinger, said she didn't notice a big difference either.

"It's just a different atmosphere," she said. "You can still ask questions just like in a regular classroom, except you watch the TV instead of the teacher."

Some students at the main end -- in the same room with the teacher -- feel differently.

"These classes just seem to move slower," said Jennifer Washburn, a fourth-year student at Southeast. "Some days the other classes can't see you or hear you and you have to stop class and have the technician fix it."

Besides the occasional technical problems, Washburn said she likes the classes and understands how they benefit off-campus students.

Helps teacher as well

James Finch teaches history and music appreciation out of Kennett and said teaching in an ITV room is a lot better than a traditional room because of the amount of technology readily available to him.

"I have a computer connected to the Internet at all times and a document camera which I can transfer onto the television screen at any time," he said.

But Parrish, the English teacher at Southeast, said she has had problems.

"It can become a disadvantage to the off-campus students," she said. "They can't ask individual questions during a test because the whole class will hear."

Parrish said she has tried to remedy the problem by asking students to come to campus on test days. "I only give four tests," she said. "I don't require them to come to all of the tests, but I'm going to have them come in for the final."

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128