sideration you need to spend some time looking at. How are visuals cre- ated? How are freehand, shapes, and autotrace functions used? Consider options for grabbing and resizing ob- jects. How are objects arranged and spaced? How are shape and skew handled? What are the cut and paste functions like? You also need to consider the layering. Can the pack- age separate layers or use sandwich- ing techniques?

Embellishing and Enhancing Images

The third major area of consider- ation when you are examining com- puter graphics software is how effec- tively you can embellish and enhance images.

As Johnson notes, "After you have looked at the graphic capabili- ties, you want to look at what you can do to enhance those images and make them unique."

Features that can embellish or en- hance your images include: fill, pat- tern, and texture, color ability, blend capability, pixel by pixel process- ing, and clip art.

Text Features Your need for quality text fea-

tures should also be considered when selecting a computer graphics pack- age. Fonts are an important consid- eration. Are they internal or exter- nal? What are its postscript capabilities? Will it output post- script? Text attribute is another im- portant consideratiotr----can it make bold type, italic, and so on? Capa- bilities for manipulation, skew, curve to a line, and appearance on screen should be noted. Screen ap- pearance is important if you need to use it for desktop presentation. Ap- pearance in print or other output is an important consideration. Johnson warns that "some things are not 'WYSIWYG.'" They do not look like what you see onscreen when you produce the output. WYSIWYG means what you see is what you get.

Output Driver Support Output driver support is another

important consideration when eval- uating software packages. You want to be sure that your software will drive the kind of machine you have.

This is not a major problem with software packages today, however, because the companies will usually update you with the driver support.

Conclusion

Finally, in evaluating software packages, "what you need to do is work with the package and match it up with your needs." Your prefer- ence for software will depend on your own background and how you like to work with a package. If you are learning to use a package, you may need to work with it for some time. The longer you work with it, you may form a whole new opinion. Software also changes. There are up- dates that may improve its capabil- ity, so even though you may not like the package now, you may want to reconsider it as new versions come along. �9

Janet Abaya works in the Department of Curriculum and Educational Tech- nology at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio.

I DE/vIM SESSION 644 I

Cable Connections: Exploring the Possibilities By Michael J. Albr ight

THE CABLE TELEVISION indus- try has made a firm commitment to providing high quality, commercial- free educational programming to America's schools. Nearly half of all public junior and senior high schools have already been provided access to free basic cable services, with most of the remainder expected to receive cable connections by the end of 1992. Private junior and senior high schools should also have free cable access by 1994. The exciting poten- tial of cable for our nation's schools was the topic of this session, pre- sented by Janis Bruwelheide and Lucy Levy.

Cable Industry Commitment

Cable in the Classroom is a non- profit organization funded by the cable industry to spearhead its ef- forts in providing educational pro- gramming to schools. Some 20 pro- grammers are members, including Cable News Network, C-SPAN, The Learning Channel, the Public

Broadcasting Service, Discovery, Arts and Entertainment, Black En- tertainment Television, and Mind Extension University. Membership also numbers more than 1,600 local cable operators, including 47 multi- ple system companies.

The project now offers more than 500 hours of commercial-free pro- gramming per month, most of them without charge and free of copyright restrictions. Schools can tape these programs and use them anytime and in any way, including editing, as long as the use is for educational pur- poses. Some programs produced by PBS, TBS, and other services are not copyright free and require spe- cial arrangements before they can be used by schools.

The monthly Cable in the Class- room magazine provides a compre- hensive listing of all programs avail- able and specifies any applicable copyright restrictions. The publica- tion also lists names, addresses, and phone numbers of programming ser-

vices and provides study guides and features. Information about this or- ganization and its members is avail- able from Cable in the Classroom, 1900 North Beauregard Street, Suite 108, Alexandria, VA 22311, phone (703) 845-1400.

Volume 37/Number 3/1992 31

Turner Educational Services

Levy described how program- ming by Cable News Network (CNN), Turner Network Television (TNT), and TBS is repurposed and repackaged for educational use by Turner Educational Services (TES). Special attention is given to making the materials as meaningful as pos- sible for students and easy to use by teachers. All TES projects are based on extensive market surveys in the educational community to determine teacher needs.

Materials are accompanied by classroom guides assisting teachers in using TES materials interactively with students. According to Levy, her greatest fear is that teachers will simply show the tapes in class with- out saying a word. Professional de- velopment activities for teachers is another Turner emphasis. TES pro- vides users guides in both video and print formats, publishes a newslet- ter, operates an 800 number hot line, and coordinates workshops and other training activities with local cable operators.

Current Turner Educational Ser- vices programming includes:

�9 CNNNewsroom, a daily, 15-rain-

ute new program providing up- to-the-minute news coverage from around the world. CNN Newsroom is accompanied by four-page teachers' guides deliv- ered to schools by electronic mail. Phone 1-800-344-6219 for information.

Democracy in America, a series describing and explaining the major issues involved in the 1992 elections. The toll-free number for this series is 1-800- 742-1096.

VideoLink, a subscription service enabling schools to videotape, archive, and use the CNN pro- grams The Week in Review and Science and Technology Week. Call 1-800-367-3170.

Turner Multimedia, a catalog- based distribution service for CNN series and features and TBS specials, offered at low cost to schools. The catalog is organized thematically, with headings such as Black History, Presidential Politics, World Stud- ies, Social Issues, and the Envi- ronment. The number for this service is 1-800-344-6219.

Cable Use Considerations

Bruwelheide described the results of a survey of school media directors to identify the key issues in using cable resources. The main concerns were:

�9 Determining responsibility for taping the programs and manag- ing their distribution.

�9 Covering the cost of videocas- settes and determining how long the tapes will be maintained.

�9 Integrating the materials effec- tively into the curriculum.

�9 Determining who pays for distri- bution of the cable signal within the school, recording equip- ment, and other hardware issues.

�9 Maintaining security of the vid- eotapes. An enormous wealth of resources

is available to schools that can re- solve these issues. The cable indus- try itself is making every effort to help schools gain access to these re- sources and use them effectively with students. �9

Michael J. Albright is Director, Cen- ter for Instructional Support at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

A New View

Two Distance Education Problems. . . Two Solutions

Initiating, producing and deliver- ing distance education through the medium of instructional television presents itself with many unique problems to solve. The approach uti- lized to solve these problems may be quite different depending on the goals and objectives used to describe the final outcome. This is certainly the case between the Interactive Television Network of Prince George's County Public School Sys- tem and a joint venture between Utah State University and the News- paper Satellite Network.

The Problems to So lve . . .

Scott Schiller, speaking for the Interactive Television Network (ITN), described the basis for the creation of ITN as an attempt to

32 Tech Trends

MDPD S[-SSION 725

Applications of Instructional Television By Robert Appleman

solve some of the inequities between smaller schools and larger schools in Prince George's County, Maryland. The county has several small high schools which did not have sufficient enrollment to offer many Advanced Placement courses. Also, it was noted that networking between schools was low and that staff devel- opment courses often required teach- ers to travel long distances after school. An existing cable television system was enhanced to meet these local needs.

Ken Boutwell described a consid- erably different set of needs and ob- jectives as he laid out the strategies for the joint venture between Utah State University (USU) and the Newspaper Satellite Network (NSN). The major need was de- scribed as focusing on the subscrib- ers of NSN who wanted training

which improved circulation skills and performance for newspaper em- ployees. The match with USU and NSN offered both organizations op- portunities to satisfy special needs. The Newspaper Satellite Network needed academic credibility for a se- ries beamed to 200 affiliated Daily Newspapers in 33 states which the School of Communication at Utah State could supply. The School of Communication needed newspaper contacts to extend the depth of its re- sources which NSN could supply. The Telecommunications Depart- ment of USU needed clients and money for the Instructional Devel- opment and Production Services it offered which NSN and the Commu- nications Department could jointly supply. A pilot production, much discussion, and a letter of intent