Sibley County ICTV System
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The Sibley County Interactive Cable TV (ICTV) System was a groundbreaking form of distance education using interactive television that drew national media attention.[1][2]
Launched in 1985, the ICTV system connected classrooms in four Sibley County, Minnesota, schools together by using four unused channels on Triax Cablevision's cable TV lines that already served the communities (installed a few years prior). The system was designed to address the problem of falling enrollments that the four schools were facing (and thus falling funding for teachers), by allowing the schools to share teachers.
- The schools on the system were Gibbon, Winthrop, Arlington, and Gaylord.
- The total cost of the system was $150,000.
The system allowed a teacher to teach a class to students at any or all of the schools. The teacher could physically be located at any of the schools. The teacher and students at all of the schools could see and to talk to each other, although assignments and tests had to be sent by courier (later fax) between the schools. Additionally, in the evenings professors from nearby Mankato State University traveled to a school of their choice and taught introductory classes on the system, allowing high school students at the schools to receive post-secondary education (i.e., college) credits at no cost and without having to travel to the university.
In 1989, the National School Boards Association launched school-site visits to several areas, including Sibley County, to show off distance learning systems.[3]