The history and legacy of the short-lived Delaware Educational Television Network is the topic of a talk in September.
Delaware was the first state in the nation to put an educational TV network in all its schools. Just a few years later, it became the first state to shut its network down.
Dana Niemeyer with the Delaware Public Archives says the network didn’t just lean on outside content, it also created its own programs.
“They've had some on geometry, map reading skills, the Delaware history program, as well as some other ones," she says. "One of my personal favorites is called Smoky the Worm and it's an anti-smoking PSA.”
But as the state’s budget surplus shrank, lawmakers cut funding for the network.
“In 1969, they were able to get a one year extension, but unfortunately in 1970, when the new fiscal year came up, it was not recommended by the Joint Finance Committee and it did not receive funding to continue," Niemeyer says.
She says DETV represents an important moment in education, and an example of educators embracing emerging technology - just as they did five decades later during the pandemic.
“Especially having gone through the pandemic and the switch to virtual teaching during that time, I think we can learn and see the ways in which education can evolve with emerging technologies," she says.
Niemeyer’s talk at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover is 10:30 am on Saturday, September 6.
