EDUCATION BY WIRELESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20287, 21 December 1927, Page 9

EDUCATION BY WIRELESS.

ENCOURAGING REPORTS. TEST GENERALLY SUCCESSFUL. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 20Much success attended the experiment of teaching school children by wireless, which was conducted by the Education Department last week. The programme, which was broadcast from station 2YA, was transmitted to a group of selected schools ranging from Whangarei to Invercargill, the object of the test—the first of its kind in New Zealand—being to probe the possibilities of what might prove to be a new method of imparting instruction. Sixty-four schools have reported already, and of this number 50 gave their reception as excellent, and stated that every word could be heard. Seven schools gave their reception as good, but a little marred by atmospherics and static. Five reported upon the reception as poor and much interfered with by static. One gives a report that the recep. tion was very bad, and another in Southland reports that it could hear nothing at all. There does not appear to be any definite geographical grouping of the places whose reception was not excellent; for instance, West Christchurch gave the reception as poor, Linwood’s was reported to be very good. Again, though Auckland city’s was poor, a Northern Wairoa school’s was excellent.

The successful results of the initial tests are likely to induce th 0 authorities to go further into the matter. Finance at the moment will be a stumbling block, since permanent installations of receiving sets for th e type used in the experiment would involve considerable expenditure. The cost would, of course, be reduced considerably if arrangements could be made to relay the programmes from the central stations and thus permit of the use or smaller and less costly receiving sets in the schools. The practice of relaying would also minimise the risk of poor reception at schools in isolated areas.