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

技术变革通常被认为与一个国家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导致学者们错过了关于实践中技术变化的众多全球叙事，还模糊了采用国家来塑造和设计引进技术的使用的机构。这项研究批判性地考察了技术转让的概念，以及技术进口国通过平衡当地和跨国的价值观和传统，以不同于设计师的社会想象的方式来改变、重新安排和解释技术项目和文物的机构。在最近的科学、技术和社会(STS)学术研究的基础上，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参与者。它不再追随技术发展的线性现代化叙事，而是专注于更古老、理应过时的技术，如用于远程学习的卫星电视，并探索如何维护其复杂的技术发展网络。远程教育卫星电视的档案研究揭示了在不同的国家背景下，技术的变化和使用如何与社会和经济地理交织在一起。卫星电视等被认为过时的系统不仅在某些领域发挥着重要作用，而且还在继续调整和发展。通过进行口述历史和档案研究，该项目通过关注技术进口国及其在技术发展中的作用，为技术史做出贡献，从而改善科学、技术和创新政策。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.