courts, a look at the life and

career of sonia sotomayor. we look at her childhood friend in princeton class might -- classmate. we look at the man who hired her as a prosecutor for the district attorney's office. "america and the courts" today at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> these places remind me of modern cathedrals. >> walter kirn would like to see a few changes to the higher education system. >> i think of these wonderfully concentrated islands of talent and well off should be opened up to the larger society not kept separate, but they still are.

>> sunday night at 8 on c-span. you can also listen on the satellite radio or download the podcast. >> how is aziz been funded it? >> the u.s. government. >> i do not know. >> not public funding. >> my tax dollars. >> how is c-span funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies started c-span with no government mandate or money. >> welcome to "the communicators." the annual meeting was recently held and in washington, d.c..

attendees had a chance to hear from the commerce secretary. >> when we think about the opportunities and advantages of broadband, i do not think we understand the full potential of it. when we talk about going to doctors' offices, being able to record some of the medical history and having that transmitted to the doctor's office -- haven't all of those medical records in one place, the power of technology, and the power of education. there is a hunger out there for education. people who lived in mort -- in remote parts of the country,

they want more education. the walmart technology. they want a teacher in every subject matter. through the power of technology and internet and cable, those students can take courses not just in a subject matter taught in schools. they can sit in on the lectures at harvard or stanford. there is no reason why and adults cannot use our technology of broadband and cable and internet to sit on courses that he or she may have always wanted to take 30 years ago, but did not have the time to. that is the power of technology. i am really excited. we are having a whole host of programs. but be president economic

stimulus package includes several billions of dollars almost $5 billion for broadband. the money is not enough to serve the entire nation. this is a down payment on the vision the president has. broadband telecommunications. in the 1930's, we had a great depression. there were so many people out of work. there were a couple of things that move our country forward. if it was when electricity was brought to so many homes in the country.

it moves economic development. the element of broadband, having cable. having tele-communications is the next great thing that will rival the electrification of rural america. it will enable students to take courses in any type of manner that he or she may want. it will hook up markets around the world. it will enable medical centers to be in touch with all the doctors and the pages they service throughout the country. the list goes on and on. the next american century will center on the use of technology. >> the commerce secretary is speaking at the annual meeting earlier this year. the display was set up called

broadband nation. it showed help increase broadband access could be used in a real-world situations such as the medical industry. >> over the last couple of weeks, we have heard a lot about information technology and using it for help records. can you paint a picture of what that would mean in the real- world? >> if you look behind you, we have electronic medical record that you might find in any position of this. -- physician office. it brings together a summary of this patient's care as well as

our own personal health records. it happens to be a juvenile diabetic patient. you can see her home medication, the health maintenance visits, if she has had any, and other reformation. this is how the positions communicate. if we look behind us, this is a mock up solution of what it might look like at children's hospital. this is what the patient might see as they were waiting to see their position in a new patient setting. >> what kind of animation are we looking at. >> their educational pocket -- pocket. they could see their care team, who is going to take care of them. take a look at what it in their charts.

a lot of different things they could do through this. and an access, games, movies, music. >> each schedule would look different depending on the needs of the patient. >> absolutely. as far as the ability for hospitals to do that now, i know you deal with one hospital. is this a trend going nationwide? >> absolutely. we are trying to engage the patient more and more in their care. we are also working with the physicians. >> they have to be prepared with a broad band to do this. >> absolutely. a lot of this information can be delivered in their home and at the health care setting if we have the right tools available.

imagine what it would be like to live in a home that is connected to your medical care provider. if you look at the aging population, we will need to keep them in their homes much longer as a long-term area of. for people all have high blood pressure or need to take medication on a routine basis, we could use technology to track of that is happening. if you're a diabetic, you could keep your insulin results in their eighth device that is connected with your personal health care adviser, and your physician would see that. the system could alert your position about your condition. >> digitizing health records has dealt with the issue of privacy. >> we make sure the data is kept private. the system has a robust security model behind them.

i am confident the security model would allow only those who need to see the records see it. >> up next, from the meeting, it looks at how broadband is incorporated in the classroom. >> out where this technology bit in this picture? >> technology has been providing digital phone connectivity to schools as well as free content in those areas. this posed together to show the effect broadband is having on teaching and learning both in schools and home. the only way to do that is to show it. the purpose of this exhibit is to show what looks like and how it works. >> our students learn more efficiently because of broadband?

>> there are examples of how that can happen. if you are a student in a rural community without access to a museum or scientist for author, with a broad band condition -- connection and video camera, you can interview the author of the book and video conference with them. you can talk with the scientist who did the experiment you are talking about in your chemistry lab. there are ways that a teacher can use different types of media to reach different students at different levels of learning styles. we can show hand-held devices that operate like cell phones where in the middle of a

lesson, you can stop and have all students answer questions to see if they understand what has been taught. >> why do not you give us the highlights of some of the things used? >> update. the safety aspect is important. how they manage the content and make sure the kids are safe and secure while they are online? media literacy is also important helping parents, teachers, and kids' understanding how media works. how does this affect you emotionally? have you tell what their intent is or the information on a site is accurate or inaccurate?

>> we have something like a medical office here. >> we do. you might be in a city or town without a pediatric cardiologists and you need heart monitoring. you could send the bottle size to the doctor who could tell you -- you could send that to the doctor who could look at the vital signs and tell you if the child needs to go to the hospital. >> it looks like someone is talking in the corner from far away. >> yes we have a video conference going on right now that is real time.

a teacher is teaching his class in north carolina using a video conference. >> they are showing a demonstration by the center for learning cooperation and collaboration which denied history museums and science museums and libraries that are able to videoconference to schools. they may be learning about colonial history, and they may be studying something such as oceans and fish and talking to the fish handlers at sea world. that is the kind of thing date set up. that is the kind of access any kid has where they live now. >> this one as electronic quality to it. what is it about that >> it is an interactive white board. it allows you to bring all the

worse -- resources together in one spot as a teacher. you can go online in showed video clips. you can go from the area you are now to the area you want to study. we could be stot -- steading about the great barrier reef of australia. many people man and go their in their life, but you can take them to their through the internet. this is a video clip of what it looks like any type of animals and fish that live there. it gives you can't else -- and tells that are similar to sell phones -- hand helds that are similar to cell phones so that you can see this is what you want to show the class.

sometimes you can do brainstorming which allows kids to categorieze words. >> how much do one of these cost approximately? >> about $1,500 for setup and about 15% of schools in the country are using boards similar to this. >> the person demonstrating this is a teacher? >> it is a teacher of teachers. he helps teachers understand how they can utilize product in media like this in their bathroom. >> can you give us an example of how this is changing teaching and if students are getting something from this technology? quite yet. it is interactive. we are not just displaying information but we are engaging

them with it. it is an intangible access to the media. they are able to take a quiz or write a paper right away. teachers can look at the responses in know what each shot is thinking at that moment. the response is instantaneous. anything we do on the web, it can be used on the interactive white board. >> how long it the technology being used as far as teaching is concerned? >> it has been around for about one decade now. it has been a huge success in our schools. >> how do they respond? >> the most important thing is making sure we have success from

the students. as a second-rate resort -- as a secondary result, there is a lot less paper and less purchasing of books. >> we have looked at the future of the doctor's office and the classroom. we will not see how broadband can be used for home entertainment. >> what is the purpose of this room we are standing in? >> etten and a connecting devices and content available on the internet. the tv behind us take our home personal content and allows us to understand the television set up. we had taken internet content to be displayed. it is typically designed for

smaller screens. but we are putting it on a larger screen with text around it. >> people can get youtube on the television? >> yes. >> what other kinds of things besides videos content was can people do? >> we have video, pictures, but the biggest requirement now is this video. >> i am on a family vacation. i download photos onto the computer and then? >> i uploaded on to an internet and web sharing side. my relatives can pull it from that sharing site and play it on their television. >> this this technology come with your standard box with cable? >> it will be.

the service provider has to be allowed to do that. >> is there a demand for this service? >> is this something that the consumers want? >> we see more people watching video from a television. it is on their computer, but they prefer to watch it on their television. we are coming up with a system so they can watch it on their television instead. >> what about the desktop? >> everything is connected to each other. the computers are connected. it's our media hub. i currently have my digital recorder.

i want to a sink it with my mobile phone. -- sync it with my mobile phone. i can now watch what i recorded the night before. we are keeping all the copyright protections in place. >> what is the touchscreen about? >> we have started integrating other aspects of the home. it allows me to have the ability to access it from a remote location. i can arm my alarm system and see what is triggered. i can have a camera in the front room and a connection to dim light.

i can turn lights on off. >> is the technology sophisticated enough so that you can do it from your mobile device? >> i could have access into the home and check security cameras in the home. >> there is one more television screen in this room. what does it do? what is its purpose? >> this is an example of -- i do channel surfing and night. i like the program. i wish i could have what should from the beginning. there is a feature called start over. i can hit that button, and it will started from the beginning of the program. >> it does not matter if it was recorded on a tv are. >> it is a real time show that i did not record previously.

these are for consumers that have the recording aspects and those that do not have recording capabilities. >> he said some of the technology is available now. what is the time frame? >> start over is currently available with time warner cable. the internet content is on trial as well. working with the mobile devices, that is going into a trial. >> one more interview to show you from the meeting earlier this year. this is courtesy of cable net. we had a guided tour of the projects in the pipeline.

>> what is pay -- what is cable net? >> it is a way for the cable industry to show a lot of new applications in terms of technology to the people in the technology industry, may not see them. >> wouldn't people in the industry know what is going on? >> summoned the programming side may not know what is going on. through a variety of companies, they bring in their new and interesting and innovative technologies. we provide the showcase or exhibit. they allow people to walk through the show to see what they have. >> you have a lot of executives here. how do you decide who gets showcase. >> we have a proposal system that we use. we determined based upon the technology applicable to cable,

which ones would be in which sectors of the group. we have high-speed internet modems or anorak of screens. there is a whole variety of things. it is an interesting selection. it enables you to see some of the new technology appearing in the marketplace. >> from what you have on display, but can you tell us about what is ahead for the consumers? >> consumers are beginning to have services in the high speed internet arena. it enables more bandwidth to deliver to the consumer. interactive digital video services can allow electronic

commerce in new ways of delivering movies and other services to the consumer on demand at their choice and convenience. >> how long does it take for a consumer to become familiar with this new technology? a consumer may not understand it at first and then asked to make it part of their daily lives. >> i cannot help be there. we seeing each new generation of technology being rolled out on a quicker space. they are more mature and they come to maturity in a more rapid pace. we see that everyday. >> how long before they become part of the market with the exhibits here? >> it could be this coming year. it could be the next two years or five years.

some of these services are already being developed and are available in retail right now. some of the television set here are available in denver and chicago. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> that is it for the program this week. you can go to our c-span website at c-span.org 4 archived programs of "the communicator's." thank you for watching. >> president of domestic policy advisor working with nixon and george w. bush talk about the lessons they learned while serving the chief executive. sunday at 4:25 p.m. eastern here on c-span.

>> these places remind me of a modern cathedral. >> walter kirn would like to see if you changes to the higher education system. >> i think these concentrated islands of talent and well off should be opened up to the larger society not separate which they still are. >> he will be speaking on "q&a" sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on c- span.