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.
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![23 April 1996 ] [Continued The Local Life service is a free service covering a wide range of material of interest to people within their own locality such as local news, local advice, local leisure and local emergency services. Information is supplied by nearly 100 providers such as local authorities, the local job centre, TEC’s Police, charitable and voluntary groups, citizens advice bureaux, clubs and societies as well as the local residents themselves. Multimedia Kiosks is a trial involving 250 London sites to test the market multimedia kiosk concept. Will provide information on travel timetables, advertising, hotel and theatre booking and some business sites with commercial information. Portable Travel Information Terminal trial is based in Scotland and involves approximately 100 people to understand the potential for commercial mobile multimedia services to aid travellers. Previous trial results have shown that people are keen to have a travel service and are prepared to pay modest amounts for solutions to problems. COMMERCE AND FINANCE Easier access to information will stimulate a more efficient and dynamic economy. Indeed, the raison d’etre of many financial institutions is to facilitate the flow of information. Services such as BT Online Information Service and BT Construction Online provide specific information to meet the needs of particular groups. More advanced services such as City Media Network Services will provide business customers with rapid and easy access to video pictures. City Media Network System is a London based trial with the purpose of providing financial TV services, training services and media information. BT Construction On-Line is now a product to provide on-line information for the construction industry using Internet and ISDN. EDUCATION Similarly, easy access to information will facilitate and enhance teaching methods. BT’s recently issued guide to teaching and learning with the Internet gives many examples of how this can be done. BT’s CampusWorld uses Internet technology to link schools to educational material: BT Interactive TV is available in eight schools, providing TV programmes linked to the national curriculum. As useful as technology may be in supporting education in schools and colleges, its real power may well lie in supporting learning throughout individuals’ lives, helping them to develop new skills and abilities. BT Interactive TV, for example, carries nursery education, adult literacy programmes and advanced education from the Open University and the Industrial Society. Tomorrow's Customers trial involves six schools in Suffolk and Wales to investigate new learning environments based on the latest telematic technology by establishing a learning test-bed in a selection of schools. Preliminary findings demonstrate improvements in children’s organisational, communication and research skills. Televersity. The Trial is based at Suffolk College and covers the Suffolk and Essex areas to investigate the concept of a university based upon a telematic approach to learning. Campus World is BT’s on-line curriculum support service targeted at schools and Colleges of Further Education in the UK and overseas. It was re-launched in September 1995 offering access to the Internet, along with e-mail, file transfer and access to information databases such as the Financial Times Profile. The content available on CampusWorld is produced to support the national curricula by two teams of educationalists, one generating material and projects for the primary schools, and one for secondary schools and Colleges of Further Education. Campus Vision is a distance learning platform. Over the next year BT aims to increase substantially the number of schools using video conferencing to deliver elements of the curriculum. A number of applications have been developed such as “virtual sixth form” for A level students and “virtual extended primary schools” for small remote primary schools. Both of these applications have been piloted to great acclaim in Gwynedd and Argyll and Bute respectively. SuperJANET is a truly broadband information network, linking up a number of universities in the UK and overseas. SuperJANET can be used for a variety of applications, including, for example, distance learning, group collaboration, and remote access to information and expertise. BT has worked closely with UKERNA and the Higher Education Funding Councils in developing this new resource. Campus Connect. For educational administration BT has developed CampusConnect. This value-added data networking service allows schools and colleges to communicate with central and local bodies. It is currently used by exam boards to disseminate exam statistics, including results.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
