ABSTRACT
This paper begins like a cautionary tale. The claims for schooling by satellite can be grandiose, unrealistic, and over-ambitious. In her assessment of SITE, the Indian experiment in rural education by means of satellite, Mody warned about “the glamorous media” and the expectation that it could “shoulder… onerous responsibilities alone as if it were a magic wand”. 2 Indeed, the same extravagance of expectations is evident even in the tag-phrases used to describe such satellite experiments. In a review of the literature, I came across the following:
“Education’s rising star”
“The orbital antenna farm”
“Communication in seven league boots”
“Teacher in the sky”
“Education in the space age”
“Satellite TV : new learning era”
“Highway in the sky”
“Education on the beam”
