EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING

Evening Star, Issue 22572, 13 February 1937, Page 4

EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING

NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN AMERICA With a view to raising the standards of educational programmes representatives of 18 organisations met recently in Washington for the lirsf national conference in America on educational broadcasting. The speakers included the author and originator of the ‘ University of the Air,’ Hendrik Willem Van Loon, who warned educators against expecting too much of the radio in the way of mass education.

“ There is only one way in which to give a person a real education, and to-day, as a thousand or ten thousand years ago, a school consists of just two things—of a teacher and pupils sitting, the one teaching, the other learning,” said Mr Van Loon., “This, Ifowevcr, does not in any way weaken or defeat the role the radio can play in our general scheme of Education. “Education, as we have discovered during these experimental years, is still primarily a matter of two men sitting at two ends of the same log, the one teaching and the other learning. Without some sort of personal contact no true educational results can ever ho achieved;

“ To provide the student with just so much information is not enough, for without the personal element nothing can ever be achieved within the domain of education. But logs, unfortunately, refuse to float in the air, and we cannot very well hire a whole Zeppelin. We can, however, bring about some sort of ‘ direct contact.’ ■

Any educational system on'the radio would be a hollow ■ thing if it were not fundamental in that those participating were free at all times to seek the truth wherever it might be found, and, having found it, to proclaim it, said tho Secretary of the Interior, Mr Harold L. Ickes. Freedom of tho Press, of assemblage, of speech, and academic freedom, he said, “ constitute the piles driven to bedrock upon which our institutions clearly stand.” “ These rights must extend to and be Inseparable from any programme of educational broadcasting that is worth the snap of a finger,” said Mr Ickes. “ While radio should not be subjected to abuse, neither should it suffer from tho strangulation of either standardisation or censorship. “ Often with a feeling of despair, not unmixed with disgust, I snap off my radio,. which I had turned ; on in the hope, that I could pick up somewhere in the air something besides blaring discords, rough-and-tumble dialogue, and ecstatic panegyrics of some commercial product. This' same privilege of ‘tuning in’ is shared by all.” The broadcaster should aim at the intelligence of his audience by using the type of vocabulary suitable to be understood by the average’age. from 16 to 23 years, said Dr Irving Lorge, of Teachers’ College, Columbia University. He. pointed out that for the age range four- to 18 years the relationship between age 'and intellectual attitude is plus .80 or . better. Thus, knowing the age of his child audience, the broadcaster has opportunity readily to gauge their levels of ability and develop materials accordingly. Dr Lorge said that all the facts concerning children of school ages are readily available for his application to The preparation of materials. “It is the age range above 18 or 20 years that constitutes an important gap in his available information,” said Dr Lorge. “ Not only are facts not known, but some of the supposed facts are wrong. For instance, the. broadcaster acts as if the intelligence of the adult audience is at some definite level in general, and that intelligence of adults declines with advancing age. _ “ An adult is probably at his prime in motor ability, in sensory functions, in intelligence, and in learning, between the ages of 18 and 25. As age advances his sensory functions decline; he does not hear as much or as well; his reaction time becomes slower; his rate of co-ordinated action, will increase. He will not, however, decline in his intellectual power to cope with problems and affairs that he must solve. He may take longer to solve such intellectual problems, but the quality of his performance will bo as good as it was at prime. His learning rate, that is, amount per unit time, will probably diminish at about one per cent, -per year from about 40 years of age.”

Dr Lorge suggests that broadcasters plan their programmes- so that: L The rate of presentation of materials be adjusted to the age of bis audience; (2) the materials of_ the broadcast be limited to relatively single coherent units per period; (3) the review of each unit in a continuous sequence of broadcast he clearly and definitely made; (4)' tho rate of speaking he slowed down; (5) minimise uncoordinated discussions because of the possible attendant confusions. “ As the publisher considers format, content, presentation, organisation, and propaganda, so must the broadcaster,” continued l3r Lorge. “ The format of a radio programme ought to consider such problems as length of programme,relative amounts of monologue, dialogue, and music, time of day and day of week. Under content ought to be considered theme, nature of, subject, and requisite listener’s background;' under organisation, title, speaker, unity of programme, continuity, and development of sequences; under presentation, vocabulary, language, construction, style, idiom, and appeal, and under propaganda, interest, attitudes,prestige, and social pressures,