Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
44/324 page 346
![23 April 1996 ] Lord Craig of Radley contd.] all of our programme makers for the services that we provide. Indeed, those standards, enshrined in our Producers Guidelines, and enforced and properly regulated by our Board of Governors are the same standards we would expect to apply to anything that we do. I think within that context where we offer indications or warnings of the content of certain programmes broadcast on radio or television, we would expect the same signalling indication of content on any BBC services that are provided. I would like to assure the Committee there is a very clear, not only understanding, but determination within the Board of Governors and the Board of Management that as we explore these new means of delivery we have to insist on that same rigorous application of standards. The signposting question has particular difficulties that you referred to, my Lord Chairman, in that of course one of the opportunities that the Internet provides is access at any time of the day for those who have the facility and ability to access that. We will do everything we can to indicate the nature of the programmes that we are responsible for and we are providing, whether that is through traditional programme guides or electronic programme guides or the indication of the content of the programmes that one is accessing. 489. Finally, do you, because you are using the Internet, in any way equate it with a universal access medium? (Mr Phillis) 1 think one of the issues that we have within the organisation, and one of the concerns that I would have as an individual, is that although others from other parts of the world have talked glowingly and widely about universal availability of such systems within any society and around the world, in real terms there is a danger of a division between the information rich and the information poor, whether we are talking about differences between Britain and Europe and the rest of the world or whether we are talking about access within Britain itself, because the number of people who are able to access the Internet at the moment is, of course, very, very small. Jane, I think, has some more detailed information. I think the number of homes in Britain with access to a PC is running something in the order of 28 per cent but Jane will correct me if I have remembered that incorrectly. The number of homes that can access the Internet because they have a modem is not surprisingly at this stage of the development of the technology very, very small indeed. Although the potential and the opportunities are there, unless as a nation we create an infrastructure which allows much broader access to the opportunities of the Internet, unless through our schools and our educational establishments and our training opportunities we open up the possibility for people to have access and to know how to use it, then the potential will be limited. It is not a universal system at the moment and I think there are policy issues and infrastructure issues that obviously any government, including our own, properly needs to address. (Ms Drabble) 1 would add simply basically— returning to a point I made earlier—I think that we can use, however, our reach as a broadcaster because we do reach into practically every home in the country in order to make the links for people and in [Continued order to expose the advantages of the so-called information superhighway in order to give people information about how best to use it and in order to try to motivate people to try it out, to go to their local library or to encourage their children or whatever is most appropriate, and to encourage a situation where we may not aspire to a PC in every home but we may aspire to every person having access to one either through their school or their work or through their local library. I think we have a very significant function, not just as a content provider but as a stimulator, if you like, of people’s interest in using digital technologies to enrich their lives. Lord Craig of Radley] So well that you got us computer literate with BBC Micro all those years ago! Lord Gregson 490. There is a very strong opinion in the States that the Internet is over-hyped for education and there has been over a long period—you are longer in the tooth in this area than we are—the opinion that the only way forward in effect is either through such video instruction based on CD Rom or interactive video instruction based on CD Rom and this is now extensively used in the States, well developed by the Department of Defense in instructing and teaching their armed forces because they have a literacy problem which is much bigger than ours. I tend to agree with this. Certainly as a method of teaching for teaching core subjects Internet seems to be the froth rather than the substance of this situation in some of the teaching that is conducted by interactive CD Rom. Have you any opinion on this? (Ms Drabble) What I think is going to happen is that we will see a mixture of resources being used. 491. Can you see a real need for Internet in teaching base subjects? (Ms Drabble) Yes, absolutely, as a research base if nothing else and as a means of communicating with other schools, other children in other parts of the world. 492. That is the froth though, is it not? (Ms Drabble) It is what the Internet does well. 493. It is very good at froth, yes I accept that. (Ms Drabble) What I have seen happening in America, and I can see it increasingly starting to happen here, is classrooms in which teachers are using a variety of resources, and the wonderful thing about computer based technologies and linking through to the Internet or linking into CD Roms or whatever is that there is a massive range of opportunity there to send a child off to say “go and find that”, or the teacher can sit with another group of children teaching in a conventional way to use the Internet to communicate or whatever. It opens up possibilities which are difficult to contain within a classic standard school library. I think we have to see it that way. I think we have to see it as an opening up and as a facilitating of dialogue. 494. Given the fact that our major problem in this country is core subjects and not the froth, should we not be able to use these technologies to improve our](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0044.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
