# Distance learning, epidemiology in the morning: UWTV


I have written before about access to education, distance learning and
so on. Today I idly flipped through the 300 channels of our kind host in
Idyllwild, after having checked that the float we visited for the
Rosebowl made it through the rain. After checking out a few news
programmes, a Spanish talk shows and some soaps, I happened upon UWTV… A
guy lecturing a whole class room on epidemiology and quality-adjusted
lifespan. Awesome - this is something I was studying with great interest
last term in school, and it was great to see a different take on it.
Butterfly always calls me a geek, and I guess I am, for I found this
lecture so much more interesting than any of the other expensive
productions we’d flipped through on the way.

After looking at their [website](http://www.uwtv.org) it turns out that
its the University of Washington that broadcasts educational programming
24/7 for free, to broadcasters in the Washington area, other cooperating
cable networks, and by satellite. And, of course they have a webcast -
whether you want to hook straight into their current stream of
programming, or - maybe more useful - watch shows from their archives…

I remember when television was first introduced in Norway, it was touted
as an amazing medium for spreading education, information and
dispassionate debates to further democracy. For many years, they
produced instructional programs, language teaching and so on - with
accompanying booklets that could be bought for a small price. Now, they
seem to have cut down on that a lot, and the programs are broadcast at
7AM on Sundays, if at all. Good to see that someone are still keeping up
the tradition though.

Stian, still in Idyllwild, CA