In 1995, the FCC demonstrated the Air Communicator, a wireless device that let teachers connect via cellular networks. Ninety percent of American classrooms had no phone service. Mathline, sponsored by CTIA, showed how six states and thirty schools were already using laptops with the technology to link teachers across state lines for real-time chat and professional development.
Order. Good morning. Welcome to the January 12th, 1995 meeting of the Federal Communications Commission, our first meeting in the new year. We'd like to begin the meeting by sharing with you a demonstration on the possibilities of bringing communications technology to that part of America that so far has been all too often left out of the communications revolution, children in their classrooms. I think everybody knows that about 90% of American classrooms don't have any telephone connection, and I'm going to have the privilege of participating along with Commissioner Chong in a demonstration of a wireless link to classrooms called Mathline. For this purpose, I would like to introduce to all of you and give a big round of applause to Beryl Jackson, who's a math teacher from Frederick Douglass Middle School in Washington, D.C.
Good morning. Good morning, Chairman Hunt. As a mathematics teacher at Frederick Douglass Middle School, I was not able to connect to the world using wireless technology, actually by using any technology, because I didn't have a telephone in my room. I also worked in the computer lab at the school, and we did not have telephones, modems, or any of that kind of technology in our classrooms either. So the wireless technology will enable teachers to connect to other teachers in their schools, in their districts, in their states, and across the country. So we are very, very excited that this is a possibility and will probably be reality for many, many teachers and many, many students across the country. PBS Mathline and this wireless demonstration sponsored by the CTIA Foundation will demonstrate how teachers and how students can be connected using this wireless technology. I'm going to Click on our Mathline logo, and in problem solving, once students have solved problems, they also need to know and be able to justify if their answers are correct. So if we look at the reasoning standards, you see it in print, all right? But we can also, using this technology, see the standards in action by looking at a small video that we have on reasoning. Are you ready to take the quantum leap? Okay, 20. What do you predict? 20 for the volume and the surface area.
I don't have to answer these, do I?
No, you don't have to answer them. All right, at this time we are expecting someone to invite you to chat.
Oh, great.
And she did. Will you accept?
Yes, you bet.
All right. And Chairman Reed accepts. Could you read it so the audience can see what it says?
So Fannie Simmons is saying the following to me here over this wireless communications device. Good morning, Chairman Hunt, and welcome to Mathline.
By the way, Fannie is from South Carolina. And she has invited you to chat.
Now it's your turn.
And she's in South Carolina right now?
And she's in South Carolina using the wireless technology.
Okay.
And all you have to do is just type a message. Just start typing.
Just type message?
And spelling doesn't count.
Do I type message?
Just type hello or anything.
Oh, I see. Okay.
And when you finish—
Good morning. There's a little, uh, a lot of typographic errors already.
That's all right.
Good morning. Okay.
And we'll press return and tell— read to the audience what you said so they'll know.
Well, what I meant to type was, good morning, thanks for all your help. And she's already typed back very quickly, what do you think of wireless modems in classrooms? I think they will revolutionize education.
Excellent. We'll press return and see if she has something else to say.
She's already written back, it gives me access to the information highway anytime, anywhere. This is terrific.
Yeah, this, this is truly terrific. In addition, with the Mathline Project, professional development is carried on online. Teachers discuss the standards, they discuss good teaching practices, they discuss methodology. They even discuss mathematical concepts that maybe they're not sure of. We know Commissioner Chong has an email, and she is going to read her email to you from Susan Bussell from WGBY Massachusetts.
Okay, I've just clicked on my mailbox, and I see I've got a message from Susan Bussell. I'm going to attempt to click on the right place. There we go. Dear Commissioner Chong, our local public TV station, WGBY 57, in cooperation with the PBS Mathline project, has made it possible for our middle school to experience the fruits of cellular technology. Our school has received a laptop computer with an air communicator. Air communicator? Mm-hmm.
The air communicator is—
Oh, it's this?
Is this the wireless? This is the wireless modem and telephone.
Wow.
And this is called the Air Communicator. They're brand new.
Pretty neat looking. The schools received an Air Communicator, all funded through SNET and Bell Atlantic. Our world of information has no boundaries. Thank you for supporting and encouraging the cellular environment. Susan Bustle. Great.
All right, the wireless The project began this week in 6 states with 30 teachers in 30 schools. Each of these teachers received the laptop and they received the air communicator. So we're very, very excited and we hope that this will be available to all teachers where technology— where wired technology is not available, and even in some of the areas where it is available. Thank you.
Well, thank you very, very much. Thank you.
I better take that back because I don't want to receive any gifts here.
Thank you very much. That was very interesting. What a great example of how communications can help all teachers in the classroom and all of our kids in the 21st century.
