South Dakota, certainly in America’s heartland, is in the midst of significant educational change centered on distance education. In South Dakota, a 200-site compressed video distance education system called the Digital Dakota Network has recently become operational. As a part of the process of launching distance education in the state, a meeting, organized by R.T.S. and Associates International, was held in the state capital, Pierre. Governor William Janklow’s Capital City Conclave on Distance Education was a twoday event intended to generate information to help South Dakota successfully incorporate distance education into the education systems of the state. On the first day, 12 invited experts in distance education (promptly dubbed “the Dakota Dozen”) participated in a round table discussion with Janklow and leaders from the Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The theme of the Conclave was “Start With the Children…Empower the Workforce…Promote Economic Development.”
The second day of the Conclave built on the first. Fifty local educational leaders, called “ambassadors” for the Digital Dakota Network, were invited to participate with the Dakota Dozen. During the daylong session, ideas were shared, questions were asked, and solutions were offered.
To prepare Conclave participants for discussions and other activities, three white papers were prepared. Entitled “Start With the Children,” “Empower the Workforce,” and “Promote Economic Development,” they are included as a special section of this issue of the Quarterly Review of Distance Education. They represent significant ideas about the positive potential for distance education not only in South Dakota, but in other states and regions as well.
