The combination of digital television and computing/networking technologies can provide solutions to many problems confronting higher education. Old Dominion University (Virginia) is committed to discovering how to exploit these technologies to produce a more effective teaching environment at a lower cost than traditional classroom teaching. The goal is for the system to accommodate itself to "technology hostile" instructors and students, but to allow students and teachers to use its additional capabilities as they become more familiar with it. The current prototype implementation uses both satellite transmission analogue video signal and Internet and Ethernet LANs to transmit data and low quality video. The prototype is on the main campus in three classrooms in one building; the full system will include several specially equipped instructional classrooms for student use and a few broadcasting facilities located across the state and on the main campus. Each student facility will consist of several multimedia workstations, networked to each other, the main campus and the Internet. The instructor's facility will contain similar multimedia workstations as well as two additional operator-controlled cameras, one used to project images of the instructor and the classroom from a distance and the other images of material the instructor has chosen to support the presentation. Advantages of the system include: online class lists, ability to see faces of discussants, integration of computers into teaching, VCR-type playback, flexible classrooms. Some disadvantages are small screens, loss of readability on markerboards, varying quality of video images. (Contains six references.) (AEF)