One-Stop Online Source Connects Classrooms to Real World.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1999--

The Futures Channel, a new Internet-based digital educational content service, today announced that it has acquired an exclusive license to the extensive video library of FASE Productions, producer of some of the most popular classroom video programming in history.

The license gives The Futures Channel over 1,000 hours of award-winning media assets to provide teachers with digital video content they can use to connect math, science, technology and the arts to the real world of careers and achievement. In addition to FASE Productions' media assets, The Futures Channel is acquiring content from other sources and also plans to commission original programming.

Among the many innovative offerings from the new digital service will be short video clips tailored to curriculum topics and state and national education standards, downloadable lesson plans, special Webcasts and professional development resources.

"It's a logical progression," said Steve Heard, who founded FASE Productions ten years ago and who will be the channel's chairman and chief executive officer. "FASE programming is immensely popular with teachers. But the conventional television model can't keep pace with the demand. This type of digital content service can."

"Teachers are looking for a new type of programming," said Kay Toliver, Presidential and Disney Award-winning teacher from East Harlem, New York. "Maybe it's a four-minute video segment to help them explain what a meteorologist does, or a profile of a woman engineer designing a rocket engine.

"These professionals are using the same basic concepts and skills that the student is learning in the classroom. But they offer a perspective that intrigues and motivates. Having this type of resource can really energize a classroom."

The model The Futures Channel is launching will enable teachers to make their video selections from any Internet connection. For example, after logging onto The Futures Channel at home or at school, a teacher will be able to preview a broad array of video clips and other resources, and select those that fit his or her lesson plan.

Full-screen, high-resolution versions of those video selections and other materials are then transmitted to the school for use in the classroom or other venue.

A sophisticated database will help teachers connect the video available at the channel to relevant curriculum topics, education standards and careers.

Because schools are at different stages in deploying technology to receive video on demand, The Futures Channel will work with districts and school media centers to provide the digital content in a format compatible with the school's technology. Currently the channel is selecting pilot sites from among candidate school districts in the United States.

The steady growth of broadband connections and rapidly improving infrastructure for delivery of digital video for classroom instruction, conferencing, virtual field trips, distance learning and professional development has put a premium on quality educational content.

"There are over 3 million teachers in America who face the challenge of relating what they are teaching to the real world," said Dr. Milton Chen, instructional media pioneer and executive director of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. "They are expected to be able to effectively answer the question: `When will I ever use this?' The Futures Channel is going to help them answer that question."

For a preview of this new educational resource, visit

www.thefutureschannel.com

About FASE Productions

The media division of the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE), FASE Productions has produced scores of television programs for classroom use, as well as primetime broadcast specials and staff development resources.

This work has received more than 150 awards, including three Peabody Awards, the Environmental Media Award, the Parent's Choice Award, the Catholic Broadcasting Association's Gabriel Award and the Action for Children's Television Award.

Its landmark series "FUTURES with Jaime Escalante" was described by acoustics pioneer and MIT professor Amar Bose as "the first effective work that addresses America's alarmingly low standards of mathematics achievement."

FASE Productions has also produced nearly 40 programs featuring Presidential and Disney Award-winning teacher Kay Toliver of New York City's East Harlem Tech/P.S.72. These include the classroom series "The Eddie Files" and the PBS documentary "Good Morning Miss Toliver."

In its review of these teacher education and classroom resources, School Science and Mathematics magazine said, "Each of the programs in this collection is independently superb, and collectively they are extraordinary in their perspective and vision."