Scanning the Dawn of High-Tech Education in the North.

In late 1986, the Ontario government began a 4-year undertaking to establish a distance education network for northeastern and northwestern residents. The network, Contact North/Contact Nord, uses a full complement of interactive telecommunications systems to make secondary and postsecondary education more accessible regardless of community size or distance from a larger center. At present, 30 access sites exist for the network, with 26 located in communities of fewer than 15,000 people. Every site has an electronic classroom equipped with state-of-the art educational technology linked to network centers in Sudbury and Thunder Bay. As part of the implementation process, a two-part study was conducted. The first phase was designed to collect baseline community data prior to the full-scale implementation of Contact North/Contact Nord. Information was gathered through local interviewers in each community who sampled 5 percent of the registered voters. The results are presented in this report in profiles of the following: (1) the people served--demographic characteristics; (2) patterns of using formal educational resources prior to the start of Contact North/Contact Nord; (3) attitudes of nonusers toward adult education; (4) community perceptions of accessibility to education resources; and (5) implementation of Contact North/Contact Nord. Extensive tables, statistics, and copies of the survey forms are provided. (KC)