News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 27

Thursday, March 8, 1984 Newi Journal, Manif leld, O. Focus: lifestyle 5-c TV, computer to motivate pupils Bill Barrett Plan weds CLEVELAND Picture this: your child's classroom as a challenging education arena where video and computer merge to deliver the day's lessons to each pupil Individually. Today's lesson is geography, or whatever they're calling it now. The youngsters are studying Peru. A television documentary about that South American country is displayed on the video screen of the computer at each desk.

At the conclusion of the instructional program, the children call up on their respective screens some specific aspect of Peru visual presentations of the country's history, culture, economy and the like, all these subjects located on different parts of the same computer disc. At the conclusion of the lesson, the computer quizzes the kids, the students answering its questions via their individual computer keyboards. The teacher receives printouts graded, of course of each child's work. The process, the technique described here, is called inter-active video. Like it or not, it is probably closer to reality than we mere computer programs just as they now borrow TV programs.

He wants WVIZ to become a design center of computer software, a place where school officials could come for advice and workshops in computer-video use. He even anticipates, someday when costs permit, the distribution over WVIZ facilities of teletext, a still largely experimental process which delivers information printed out on the screen "pages" which can be called up by computer command and updated quickly and simply at the computer center. Will all this change the daytime function of WVIZ as a television station that services its client schools with educational material? "No," Valenti replies thoughtfully. "There will always be TV programs appropriate for one-way educational TV documentaries, for example, and nature lessons and teaching programs on the arts. "But when inter-active video arrives, our function, strictly speaking, won't be a broadcasting function.

It will be much more." "It certainly won't replace teachers, of course the wedding of TV and the computer can help motivate students, but the teacher must prepare them for the lesson and discuss it after it leaves the screen. "And this procedure is not for teaching everything. You wouldn't want to nave kids sitting and watching TV all day at the computer. But the concept of inter-active television two-way TV is where video and the computer are going. And we're interested in that" Channel 25 wants to become a center for educational computer services for the schools of northeast Ohio.

Valenti's thoughts and aims are set forth in a prospectus for VIZ-TEC. In it he argues that WVIZ was founded 19 years ago with the direction of area school superintendents. He points out that the station is already a high-tech agency with its up-to-date communications system which includes satellite-reception capability. He sees the station as the site some day of a computer-software library where schools could borow n. niili.liuiLii.1 I ill ii jiiiiii.

mwmpu, i ii 't lu if r7 A -if" L'-'Vl' In ft 1 --T-r Ocean breeze sweeps across TV show's set 'Anniversary Waltz' for Steven and Elyse Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross and Meredith Baiter Birney) celebrate two decades of marital bliss with a lavish party that's preceded by a week of feuding in "Anniversary Waltz" ou "Family Ties," tonight at 8:30 on channels 3,4 and 13. grown-ups have thought. In fact, a comprehensive areawide plan is under way at WVIZ, Channel 25, the educational TV station serving the Cleveland vicinity, to activate such a system in the classrooms of schools in northeast Ohio. The sophisticated project even has a high-tech name "VIZ-TEC" which stands for "WVIZ Technologies for Education Center." The man in charge of VIZ-TEC development is Thomas A. Valenti, director of educational services at the station.

He's a former English teacher with graduate work in communications. "How close are we to achieving it? Five years, maybe," be said. "In 10 years this concept of inter-active video will dominate instructional television. Industry and the military are already into it for training purposes. years ago, in which he was one of four heirs vying for the throne of a postage-stamp-sized European principality.

"After that I knew I wanted to work with Stephen again," says the handsome, blond actor. "'Quest' was a good experience and I think given a good time slot it would have worked. But I enjoy this much better. "I heard about it after Stephen wrote it I'm not sure he thought I was right for the part. I think he thought I was too preppy, too Ivy League.

So I did a screen test and tried to give it some rough edges. He's a street guy who was in the MPs. I've been trying to get more roles like that. There aren't many calls for preppies." King, a prep school product and graduate of Yale University, has starred in a variety of roles, from "The Lords of Flatbush" to "The Choirboys" to "Slaughterhouse Five." His television roles include Mansfield PRESENTS THE REMARKABLE MR. PENNYP ACKER A Situation Comedy life With Father Type Show" Show Dates LAST WEEKEND MARCH 9-10 Curtain 8:15 RESERVATIONS 522-2883 "Captains and Kings," "The Last Convertible," "Aspen" and "Foster and Laurie." King's daughter, Louise, 13, stops by with a friend.

She announces she's discovered "Riptide" T-shirts on sale at a nearby shop. Mothers walk by pushing strollers. A teenager approaches King shyly for an autograph. Nick delivers more food, and the seagulls follow a boat in from the ocean. After "Quest" King toped "The Hasty Heart" for Showtime pay television network with Cheryl Ladd and Gregory Harrison, who was also the producer.

He also stars in "Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues" for Operation Prime Time. Mare Winningham plays Miss Keller, Blythe Danner plays Anne Sullivan, and King is John Macy, Miss Keller's editor and the husband of Miss Sullivan. It takes place at the turn of the century, following the period covered by the prize-winning play and motion picture "The Miracie Worker." "I feel I have a lot in common with John Macy," says King. "He grew up in Nantucket and I spent my summers there. He was an editor and my grandfather, Maxwell Perkins, was an editor (to Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and others).

My mother said she didn't know if they knew each other, but they probably did. "The story is about the uncomfortable triangle between Helen, Anne and Macy. It was the discord of that triangle that broke up the marriage." FRIDAYS ARE SPECIAL IN MARCH AT THE SKYWAY EAST $695 rnmr Kin DINNER Served Friday Evenings 5-11 P.M. Dinners include your choice of salad bar, fresh spinoch salad or soup and potato or vegetable. Far SuumM lestnitiNt: 589-9929 All Major Credit Cards Accepted sfmm rjfJMESM jjjjf-- II Traditional jj II Chinese Dining it I in an Elegant jJX Oriental Setting, jL Tuesday thru Sunday jWL 1 1 a.m.

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419-529-2212 For the Best Home Buys Read the Classified Section 2441 Emma Lane, Mansfield U.S. 30 Expressway at Reed Road Exit 1 7 .7 -V V. By Jerry Buck The AModated Preu REDONDO BEACH, Calif. An ocean-scented breeze blows in from the Pacific, gently rocking the boats moored to the dock as bikini-clad women stroll in the bright sunlight. Is this a vacation resort or is it a television locale? The answer is yes and yes.

It's Pier 56 at King's Harbor in Redondo Beach, about 20 miles south of Los Angeles. It's also the place where television detectives Perry King, Joe Penny and Thorn Bray hang their yachting caps for NBC's "Riptide." It's a seagoing caper with boats, computers, a robot, a sputtering helicopter and beautiful women. "We work here at least one day a week, sometimes two," says King as he settles himself at a tiny table on the boardwalk overlooking the Contessa, a motor sailboat used in the show. The other boats are the Riptide and the Ebbtide. Overhead, screeching gulls look for morsels.

Nick the Greek serves a garlicky salad with lots of feta cheese from his open-air restaurant. King says, "Nick stays open late at night when we're working here, and he makes Greek coffee for us. It's wonderful, and believe me, it'll keep you awake on the long drive home." "Riptide" is a midseason show that has caught on with viewers and given NBC a much-needed shot in the ratings. It's from Stephen J. Cannell and the Tuesday show follows another Cannell success, "The A-Team." It's a tongue-in-cheek action adventure about two ex-Army buddies who run a down-at-the-heels detective agency.

King as Cody Allen runs the Riptide, a 50-foot fishing trawler. Penny as Nick Ryder flies a helicopter held together by spit and chewing gum called the Screaming Mimi. Bray is Murray Bozinsky, a computer nerd. Anne Francis runs the charter boat Contessa, with an all-girl crew. This is King's second series for Cannell.

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