3. Answer the questions using the information in the text:

1. What does desktop publishing refer to?

2. What is the difference between desktop publishing and graphic design?

3. Who uses desktop publishing software and techniques? What for?

4. How does the computer and desktop publishing software aid in the creative process?

5. What is done to make desktop publishing accessible to a wider range of people?

4. Decide if the following sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones:

1. The term "desktop publishing" was coined by John Brainerd, a founder of Abus Corporation.

2. Desktop publishing is a means of publishing reports, advertising, etc., to typeset quality using a desktop computer.

3. There is no difference between graphic design and desktop publishing.

4. Desktop publishing is the mechanical process that the designer use to turn his ideas for any projects into digital files for printing.

Text 20. DISTANCE EDUCATION

1. Discuss the following questions in pairs:

1. How can you define ‘distance education’?

2. Does your university give an opportunity to study by means of distance learning? Would you like to try it? Why? Why not?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of distance education, in your opinion?

2. A) Match the following words and word combinations with their Russian equivalents:

1. rural grading to award smth course requirements to take advantage of to replicate dimensions to establish a matter of time burgeoning

воспользоваться аттестация имитировать создавать вопрос времени распространяющийся, растущий требования курса аспекты присуждать что-либо сельский

В) Translate the phrases from the text using the words and word combinations given above:

1. to educate rural working classes

2. to return the work for grading

3. to award a certificate upon completion of course requirements

4. to take advantage of video conferencing technology

5. to replicate the personal and social dimensions of face-to-face education

6. to establish the classroom within existing virtual world

7. to seem only a matter of time

8. to exist in burgeoning alternative worlds

3. Read the text and choose the most suitable heading from the list (1-5) for each paragraph:

1. Virtual world classroom

2. PLATO

3. Use of televisions and radios

4. Correspondence schools and classes

5. Face-to-face interaction via video conferencing

A) Distance education (also called distance learning or virtual learning) is the use of electronic information and communication technology to link teachers and students while they are not actually together in a physical classroom. Distance education in the form of correspondence schools or classes began as early as the mid-19^th century with teaching of the Pitman Shorthand writing method. Later, correspondence classes became part of Chautauqua, a movement to educate the rural and urban working classes, using the growing reach of mail service through Rural Free Delivery. In correspondence schools, each lesson is typically mailed to the student, who completes the required work and returns it for grading. A certificate is awarded upon completion of course requirements. A few universities (such as the University of Wisconsin) also began to offer correspondence programs at that time.

B) By the middle of the 20th century, radio and then television was being used to bring lectures to students. This increased the immediacy and spontaneity of teaching. The invention of videotape in the 1970s allowed leading teachers to create customized courses aimed at different audiences. However, for a long time the ability of students to interact with teachers remained limited.

C) In the 1960s computers also began to be used for education. One of the earliest and most innovative programs was PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), which began at the University of Illinois but was later expanded to hundreds of networked terminals. PLATO in many ways pioneered the combining of text, graphics, and sound—what would later be called multimedia. PLATO also provided for early forms of both e-mail and computer bulletin boards. Meanwhile, with the development of ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) and eventually the Internet, a new platform became available for delivering instruction. By the mid-1990s, courses were being delivered via the Internet.

D) Nowadays, as broadband Internet access becomes the norm, more Internet-based learning environments are taking advantage of video conferencing technology, allowing teachers and students to interact face to face. This helps answer a common objection by critics that distance education cannot replicate the personal and social dimensions of face-to-face education.Moreover, the universities using distance

education sometimes offer a period of physical residency (perhaps a few weeks) as part of the semester for their students.

E) New platforms for distance education continue to emerge. Class content including lectures has been formatted for delivery to mobile devices such as iPods. Another intriguing idea is to establish the classroom within an existing virtual world, such as the popular game Second Life. Second Life, launched by Linden Lab in 2003, is a complete virtual world in which participants, called “residents” can do just about anything—play and be entertained, have relationships, conduct businesses and meetings and even attend university courses. Here students and teachers can meet “face to face” through their virtual embodiments (avatars) and interact. It seems only a matter of time before entire universities will exist in such burgeoning alternative worlds.