{"id":314,"date":"2020-06-12T14:48:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T14:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/?p=314"},"modified":"2021-05-18T14:59:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T14:59:34","slug":"frontline-fellows-qa-with-scetv-president-and-ceo-anthony-padgett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/riley\/frontline-fellows-qa-with-scetv-president-and-ceo-anthony-padgett\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontline Fellows: Q&A with SCETV President and CEO Anthony Padgett"},"content":{"rendered":"

Committed to progress in South Carolina, fellows of The Riley Institute\u2019s\u00a0Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI)<\/a>\u00a0seek to develop real solutions for real social issues. As the COVID-19 outbreak has drastically changed the way we live, these state leaders are quickly adapting the ways they support the communities they serve. We\u2019re shining the spotlight on their exemplary leadership during this unprecedented time in our new Frontline Fellows series.<\/em><\/p>\n

See all\u00a0Frontline Fellows<\/em>\u00a0interviews<\/a>
\nIn this interview, we speak with SCETV President and CEO Anthony Padgett<\/strong>. In the early days of the pandemic, the Riley Fellow (Midlands, Spring 2019<\/em>) and his staff at the public broadcasting network worked quickly to air curriculum-based programs that supplement at-home learning. Since that time, COVID-19 has continued to crystallize the need to make content accessible for students who lack internet access, and SCETV is leading the charge with the pilot of its datacasting technology.<\/p>\n

The pandemic has underscored the need for widespread internet access as many children are unable to learn remotely without it. SCETV has been piloting technology<\/a> that could possibly bridge the gap for some students. What can you tell us about datacasting and its long-term potential?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Datacasting is a technology that has been around for about a decade in the public media sector and has traditionally been used for public safety communications. It was originally designed and implemented as a way to send files using a terrestrial broadcast signal when a cellular network or broadband internet might be unreliable or unavailable.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re talking about with the digital divide in South Carolina is nothing new. [Editor\u2019s note: Roughly 150,000 households with school-age children in South Carolina don’t have a reliable internet connection, according to the S.C. Department of Education.] It\u2019s conversation that\u2019s been going on for quite a while now, and all the answers tend to be very expensive and time-consuming. But with datacasting, we can send content curriculum that\u2019s either created by SCETV or our educational stakeholders and partners to students who might have an electronic device but lack internet at home.<\/p>\n

Datacasting is essentially the bridge in the middle. Through a special receiver in a student\u2019s home, the technology actually converts a portion of our broadcast spectrum into a one-way encrypted IP data stream. The technology allows us to target who we need to, whether that is a single student or every third-grade class in the state.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re working on acquiring funding to expand our datacasting system and hope to establish 10 datacasting zones throughout the state. About 98 percent of the state falls within SCETV\u2019s broadcast coverage area. By expanding our datacasting system, in theory, practically every student in the state could be given one of these receivers and have access to curriculum through our airwaves.<\/p>\n

When thinking about the long-term potential of datacasting, we hope that COVID-19 is an anomaly, but we know that we\u2019re going to continue to face disrupted learning due to inclement weather events like snowstorms and hurricanes. With the digital makeup day initiative that is already being piloted across the state, our hope is that this technology has an application even after COVID-19 has passed. When students need to make up a day of school, they can still stay engaged from home using this technology even if they don\u2019t have access to internet.<\/p>\n

Datacasting hasn\u2019t been the only thing SCETV has focused on at this time. The station increased its educational offerings and has provided local, up-to-date information about COVID-19 since the pandemic began. What programming have you focused on during this time, and how has SCETV\u2019s mission as a public broadcasting network influenced this shift?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as content and programming go, one of our initial responses was related directly to education with our at-home learning initiatives. We worked closely with our partners at the South Carolina Department of Education to identify needs and find resources that could help solve some of the at-home learning challenges that were arising. For us, education is essentially in our DNA. As a station, that\u2019s what SCETV was founded upon. It has always been dedicated to early childhood learning and education, so we were really able to leverage the resources that we already had available to us to meet new and evolving needs and create customized content for certain curriculum and grade levels. Our partnership with the Department of Education helped us better understand needs and what the teachers were facing in real life. It allowed us to be more responsive and supportive while ensuring that our programming and content were as impactful as they could be.<\/p>\n

We have also always been diligent to disseminate information in a timely and effective manner, and our response to COVID-19 has been no different. We\u2019ve been working with the governor\u2019s office and the South Carolina Emergency Management Division and others with whom we already share a close working relationship. We furthered those partnerships to provide more real-time information from those sources. We provided content directly from the statewide emergency management program as well as the accelerateSC meetings. We\u2019ve streamed events and covered all of the governor\u2019s live press conferences. It is important to us to provide updates in a straightforward manner that really allows people to make the decisions they need to make based on true and accurate information.<\/p>\n