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An examination is made of the potential role of communications media and technology in the future of higher education in the United States (U.S.). The status of U.S. higher education is reviewed, important trends are identified, and the rationale for increased technological utilization is discussed. This is followed by a description of selected examples and uses of large-scale electronic technology in American higher education and by a review of experiments and demonstrations involving television and computer and information networks. Particular attention is also devoted to experiments and future developments involving communications satellites. Projects in the Pacific area and Alaska, as well as forthcoming experiments in the Rocky Mountain states and in Appalachia, are described, with emphasis upon developments which might aid in resource sharing and in expanding access to higher education. The paper concludes with some brief comments concerning forecasts of the future utilization of technology in higher education and some suggestions concerning the role of communications media in the proposed World University. (Author)

The purpose of this study is to compare the relative impact of communication structures and the utility of sixteen sources of orientations in the development concepts related to peace and war among high school students. 197 students from Seattle, Washington and 227 from Vancouver, British Columbia were asked to respond to four open-ended questions on war, peace, and causes of war, and the prevention of war. They were then asked to rate the utility of their sources of information: TV at home, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, movies in theaters, teachers, textbooks, movies in school, TV in school, minister or teacher in church, and content of religion. Statistical analysis utilized a one-way analysis of variance, the dependent variable being the source ratings. 21 of the 64 comparisons had greater utility for the Seattle sample; the print and motion picture sources had greater utility for the Vancouver sample. A clarification of possible causative variables is provided in an interpretive section of the paper. A related document is SO 001 842. (Author/DJB)

At the request of the National Science Foundation, the Panel on Telecommunications Research of the Committee on Telecommunications of the National Academy of Engineering has made a preliminary survey of the status and trends of telecommunications research in the United States and selected foreign countries. The status and trends were identified by individual studies devoted to an examination of developments in telecommunications in several functional areas, primarily, but not exclusively, in the United States. In addition, attention was given specifically to telecommunications research in technologically advanced countries abroad, including European data networks. The report of the Panel is presented in two volumes. Volume I (LI 004 452) is intended to provide the reader with an overview of the total study, as well as to present detailed results on some aspects. This document, Volume II contains the text of the studies prepared by the Panel members and other experts on various functional areas of U. S. and foreign telecommunications research, which served as background material for the Panel's study. These 26 individual papers are grouped under the following headings: The systems approach; Human factors; Terminals, sensors and displays; Transmission, modulation/demodulation and coding; Switching, routing and control; Processing and storage; and, Miscellaneous. (Author/SJ)