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Guest Column: Cable Teaches Media Smarts—and Helps Its Bottom Line

Cable World, August 8, 2005

By Dr. Helen Soule, executive director, Cable in the Classroom

Another school year starts and millions of children across the country come pouring into classrooms, filled with anticipation. And for those of us in the cable industry, it's a perfect time to focus on the clear and vital connection between education and cable--a connection that affects everything, from our children's future to the corporate bottom line.

We cannot imagine the world that today's first-graders will live and work in when they grow up, but one thing seems clear: Media and technology will play an important, maybe even dominant role.

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The cable industry finds itself in a unique and enviable position. We are providing an increasingly sophisticated array of technologies--from digital TV to VoIP to broadband to VOD--and a wealth of content, on TV screens and online, that engages and educates. The programming and connectivity cable provides are becoming essential tools for all sorts of teaching and learning in schools, in homes and in the community.

As the industry's education foundation, Cable in the Classroom (CIC) has taken the lead in showing how cable's resources are shaping learning in the 21st century and, perhaps more importantly, has been helping teachers, parents and caregivers learn to use media wisely.

Cable in the Classroom has created broadband learning modules, designed to present educational concepts in a compelling, interactive format that highlight cable's resources. The newest module, Windward: Outsmart the Weather in a Race Around the World, takes players on a virtual around-the-world sailing odyssey where weather-related challenges require players to analyze weather maps and other data in order to win the race. The partners, NASA, Discovery Education and The Weather Channel, have contributed video and interactive content on the science of weather. Windward joins Shakespeare: Subject to Change and eLECTIONS: Your Adventure in Politics on the CIC website, each one brandable with the logo of the players' local operator.

For more than a decade, CIC has spearheaded the industry's efforts to educate consumers about using media wisely. In collaboration with National PTA and countless cable systems and networks, we've hosted workshops and provided information and tools in print, on air and online that teach children and adults how to be "media smart." This work, along with the Control Your TV website (www.controlyourtv.org), millions of dollars worth of PSAs and other industry outreach, is helping parents and policy makers learn how to use cable's parental controls, the TV ratings systems and the V-chip to take control of media in the home.

The cable industry can take justifiable pride in its commitment to education. Through CIC, cable has not only helped teachers and students, it has also realized business and public affairs benefits as schools purchase advanced services, as parents sign up for broadband at home and as policy makers understand the full range of what this industry is doing in communities across the country.

There is limitless potential in the programs, tools and technologies this industry offers. We'll be working with cable networks and operators to find the best ways these resources can be used to have a positive influence on schools, homes and communities.

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Guest Column: Cable Teaches Media Smarts—and Helps Its Bottom Line

Cable World, August 8, 2005

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