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Enron Mail |
Category: EBS, Videoconferencing, PICtureTel Description: PictureTel and Enron Link Five Continents to Create orld's Largest Classroom Detail: Business Wire 3/1/00 England's Prime Minister Tony Blair part of 16-hour Global Leap video conference with U.S. astronauts, thousands of children and others PictureTel Corporation (Nasdaq: PCTL) has created the world's largest classroom, bringing American astronauts face-to-face with schoolchildren, mathematicians and others in a worldwide educational video conference. For Global Leap - a 16-hour distance-learning event - PictureTel furnished technical support and video streaming over the Internet via Enron Broadband Services' ePowered Media Cast(TM). Presented jointly with Slough, England's Arbour Vale School, classroom sessions included live, interactive "virtual field trips," where children can talk to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, astronauts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), divers at the Great Barrier Reef, mathematicians at Cambridge University, game wardens in South Africa and others around the world. Up to 20 learning sites were involved in each session, while 3,000 more participated via Internet video streaming. The event also marked the launch of www.Global-Leap.com, an online directory of educational videoconference links for schools. Global Leap 2000 was organized by Arbour Vale teacher Mike Griffith, who noted: "The Internet and other communications technology are making the world smaller by the second. That's why education must become more global in focus. Global Leap 2000 demonstrates the educational value of videoconferencing, and shows how technology breaks down cultural barriers by bringing students and others to places they may never otherwise experience." PictureTel, the world leader in video-based communications, has provided full technical support for the event, including the "electronic bridge" that connected thousands of children worldwide, through fully interactive videoconferencing. In addition, PictureTel's Enterprise Services Division made the event available to thousands more, through streaming video over the Internet. "Global Leap 2000 demonstrates the vast potential that distance-learning holds for students of any level," said Dr. Norman Gaut, PictureTel's chairman and chief executive officer. "By bringing interesting subjects from around the world inside the classroom - and allowing real-time interaction - Arbour Vale School enabled PictureTel to show that any obstacle to communication can be overcome." About PictureTel PictureTel Corporation is the world leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing a full range of visual- and audio-collaboration and streaming-video solutions. The company's systems meet customers' collaboration needs from the desktop to the boardroom. PictureTel also markets network conferencing servers and a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise-wide services. Additional PictureTel information is available at www.picturetel.com. PictureTel collaboration products and services eliminate the barrier of distance, enabling people to be Anywhere Now(TM).
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