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Alan Escovitz

By Emmett Crawley

In July, Alan Escovitz, CIO's director for external affairs, was taped for a 7-10 minute video that's being produced jointly by public broadcasting services at Ohio State (WOSU-TV), University of Wisconsin, and Penn State University.

Through the video, PBS hopes to pique faculty interest in partnering with public broadcasting by showcasing the potentials of digital broadcasting technologies for teaching, learning, research dissemination, and outreach. In addition to Escovitz, the video will feature talks by OSU president, Karen Holbrook, and the presidents of the University of Wisconsin and Penn State.

For his part on the video, Escovitz drew on his broad experience, dating back to the 1970's, in using broadcasting as a teaching medium. He talks about the need for greater collaboration among universities with PBS licenses and the opportunities that exist for faculty to use the digital medium of television for teaching and learning. He also talks about the convergence of various digital learning environments.

For more than 20 years, Escovitz produced an annual cable TV healthcare series that aired in Ohio and five contiguous states; in 2002, he received the TV industry's prestigious and highly competitive Telly Award, honoring outstanding non-network television commercials, video productions, and films.

Cindy Gaillard, senior producer, WOSU-TV, says public broadcasting's move into digital transmission offers opportunities for greatly increased content delivery across multiple modes beyond linear broadcasting. "Indeed, the technology and media climate are almost dictating a redefinition of public broadcasting." She adds that the desired end results of this project will an expressed interest by faculty to find out more; to pursue the development of projects utilizing digital capabilities through broadcasting, datacasting, and non-broadcast distributed products; and to explore methods that maximize asset usage for multiple audiences--public, higher education, and k-12.

When completed, the video will be made available in DVD format to faculty within the PBS areas of the three participating universities.