TELEVISION AS AN EDUCATIONAL AID

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30688, 2 March 1965, Page 14

TELEVISION AS AN EDUCATIONAL AID

Television as an educational medium in the United States was the subject of an address by the district manager of Broadcasting (Mr K. M. Hay) given at the monthly meeting of the Hillmorton High School board of governors last evening.

Mr Hay was supervisor of school broadcasts and educational programmes in 1961, and he spent four months in the United States studying educational television. He visited 20 teaching institutions in the United States and Canada and saw more than 100 television programmes. There were three methods of using television, said Mr Hay. There was direct teaching, team teaching, and supplementary programmes. In Maryland, there was a group of 46 schools linked by co-axial cable to a central television studio which put out school programmes all day.

In one hall Mr Hay saw 200 children with three teachers and about 10 television sets. The lesson was on Egypt and screens showed a teacher in front of a blackboard interspersing the lesson with slides. The lesson lasted 53 minutes and the children became restless. Many were talking. The teachers wandered around to keep order. In a Negro high school in Philadelphia three classes were joined for a lesson on insurance. At one end of the classroom a teacher with a microphone around his neck went over the previous day’s lesson then the television was turned on and another teacher spent 10 minutes giving a lesson on insurance.

The children were then told to do certain problems and 10 minutes later the television teacher went over the problems.

This method, where the teacher had prepared the lesson, was extremely effective, said Mr Hay. Mr Hay was told that the advantages of these methods allowed schools to do what they could not otherwise do. In the United States there were 240,000 teaching vacancies and 60,000 uncertified teachers were being used. Some Resentment Many teachers resented having their role taken over by television teachers, said Mr Hay, and often teachers had no option about using television.

An example of the third method Mr Hay saw was compelling and fascinating, he said. In Canada the work of a Canadian author was being studied. Phrases from his book were read, then four students were shown interviewing the author, a dramatised version of the story was shown, then back to the interview.

This was an aid, not a substitute, said Mr Hay. The method was expensive but the medium was fully exploited and the production was of professional quality. A disadvantage was that unless the programme was closely linked with the syllabus it would become mere entertainment