Satellite Television for Education: A History of the Use of Satellite Television in Different National Contexts from the 1900s to the 2020s

技术变革往往被认为与一国的现代化和发展密切相关，特别是在发展中国家。然而，技术决定结果的假设不仅使学者们错过了许多关于实践中技术变革的全球叙述，而且还掩盖了采用国在塑造和设计使用进口技术方面的作用。本研究批判性地审视了技术转让的概念和技术进口国的机构，通过平衡当地和跨国价值观和传统，以不同于设计师的社会习俗的方式改变，重新安排和解释技术项目和人工制品。在最近的科学，技术和社会（STS）奖学金的基础上，这项研究将非发明国家视为技术发展过程中积极和创造性的行为者。它摆脱了对技术发展的线性现代化叙述，转而关注更古老的、被认为过时的技术，如用于远程教育的卫星电视，并探讨了维持其复杂的技术发展网络的问题。对卫星电视远程教育的档案研究揭示了技术变革和使用如何与不同国家背景下的社会和经济地理交织在一起。像卫星电视这样的过时系统不仅在某些领域发挥重要作用，而且还在继续调整和发展。该项目通过口述历史和档案研究，关注技术引进国及其在技术发展中的作用，为完善科学技术创新政策，对技术史做出贡献。该奖项体现了NSF的法定使命，通过基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Technological change is often assumed to be closely related to a country’s modernization and development, particularly in developing countries. However, the assumption that technology determines outcomes has not only led scholars to miss numerous global narratives of technological change in practice but has also obscured the agency of adopting nations in shaping and designing the use of imported technology. This research critically examines notions of technology transfer and the agency of technology-importing nations to alter, rearrange, and interpret technological projects and artifacts in ways that differ from designers’ social imaginaries by balancing local and transnational values and traditions. Building on recent Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship, this research treats non-inventing nations as active and creative actors in the technological development process. It moves away from following linear modernization narratives of technological development to focus on older, supposedly outmoded technologies, like satellite television for distance learning, and explores the maintenance of their complex technological development network. Archival research of satellite television for distance learning reveals how technological change and usage are intertwined with social and economic geographies in different national contexts. Supposedly obsolete systems like satellite television not only have a significant role to play in some areas but also continues to be adjusted and developed. Through conducting oral history and archival research, this project contributes to the history of technology by focusing on technology-importing nations and their role in technological development so as to improve science, technology, and innovation policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.