The “EduCultural Channel” A Russian television program inspired this initiative in which notable science, education, and cultural figures in the country are interviewed and their work is explained in a fashion interesting and understandable to the general public. The goal of the EduCultural Channel is to broker content (and in cases, stage and develop content) making “high-end” science applications utilizing the GLORIAD network understandable and accessible to the general public and to young people.
Each of the national GLORIAD teams has agreed to identify and broker content for the “channel” service. The US Advisory Board member co-chairing a working group on the EduCultural Channel is a documentary filmmaker whose clients include PBS and the History Channel. With his Russian partners at the Keldysh Institute in Moscow, he has developed advanced multimedia content describing the parallel histories of the Soviet Union and the United States through the 20th century. This program features additional US partners at San Diego State and Northwestern Universities – both with experience in running IP-based video/content services.
Another focus of the EduCultural Channel is on developing content by and for young people - predicated on the Russian GLORIAD leader’s observation that young people need to learn video editing as a future communication skill. Chicago Public Schools has agreed to pilot work with the Educultural Channel due to their evolved international curriculum and their existing courses on video production. Technically, the EduCultural Channel will run across a distributed platform of video servers (located at the primary GLORIAD network locations) and providing for both unicast and multicast streaming services. In addition to a “24/7” lineup of broadcast material, the servers will also feature an “on demand” service by which visitors can view archive material.
Finally, this program will work in close partnership with the “Virtual Science Museum of China” developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and with the University of Texas at Austin (with NSF funding) as a means of making science accessible to the broader public through a very innovative and carefully developed set of educational material and multimedia content.
At the Virtual Museum, visitors can learn important facts about earthquakes or tour remote wilderness areas. The Museum also offers information on the various flora and fauna that call China home.
