On November 14, 1984, twenty-seven students from three different sections of the third-semester German language sequence at Dickinson College gathered on campus for a special class dealing with nineteenth-century German emigration to America. Meanwhile, in Bremerhaven, West Germany, four German scholars adjusted their pin-on microphones at the National Maritime Museum. At precisely 10:30 a.m. EST (16:30 MET), Radio Bremen's television cameras switched an, and the images of the four scholars appeared on a television screen in the Pennsylvania College classroom. This was the start of America's first experiment in intercontinental education by satellite, and for the next hour the Dickinson students were taught by Germans in Germany in a question and answer format that also utilized a two-way audio link between Dickinson College and the National Maritime Museum.1 This experimental broadcast was part of a pilot program developed by the National Committee for Internationalizing Education through Satellites, Inc. (NCIES),2 a private, nonprofit organization of specialists in language and international studies, instructional technology, satellite broadcasting, and communications law dedicated to breaking down geographic and cultural barriers to learning by the use of satellite technology. This was NCIES's first attempt at actual international satellite education,3 and the transmission followed a complex route of ca. 100,000 miles across land and ocean, employing two satellites to span the distance between Bremerhaven and Carlisle, Pennsylvania. As a pioneering effort, this was a costly and cumbersome project;4 yet, as a behavioral study in techniques of cultural integration, it offers insights into students' learning postures and into the potentials of live, intercontinental interaction as a standard tool in intermediate language instruction.5 Dr. Thomas Naff, the NCIES Director, has described the model which he envisions for international language classes in this fashion: