BROADCASTING HAS AMAZING FUTURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18046, 5 January 1927, Page 6

BROADCASTING HAS AMAZING FUTURE.

WIRELESS EDUCATES BOTH OLD AND YOUNG

Dealing with some possible methods o f educating the public by means of wireless broadcasting, a special correspondent of the London “Observer writes: Broadcasting in education is as yet in its infancy; but the vigorous constitution of the infant is already causing the grown-ups to dispute among themselves as to what its future career shall be. As to the position in the present and as to what may be done in the immediate future ,the following incomplete plan may serve as a guide:— 1. Education work for the young. (a) Through the schools and educational institutions. (b) During free hours. 2. Adult education. A. Non-vocational. (a) (1) Single lectures or talks of » popular interest which may be an end in themselves or a stimulus to further study. (2) Courses of lectures with a like object. (b) Courses of lectures with a like object, but in which the stimulus is greater. (c) Courses of lectures to supplement what has already been done in the world of education. These will be of a more specialised kind. B. Vocational courses. With regard to lectures generally, a cynic has remarked that the advantage of a wireless talk over all other forms of lecture is that you can get rid of the speaker without hurting his feelings, if you do not like what he says or the way he says it. Vet, whilst wireless has no doubt, on the one hand, put a good number of lecturers of the old type out of commission (with no loss in many cases to anybody but the unfortunate lecturers) ; on the other hand, it has induced many a person, who would never have thought of going to a lecture, to listen in and become stimulated to further study by a talk on some cultural or scientific subject. Evidence which has been received from a number of free libraries tends to show that broadcasting has increased the demand for books of a serious nature; whilst the correspondence received by many of the British Broadcasting Company’s speakers shows that an intelligent curiosity has been aroused by their talks. Demand for Education. Tt is necessary, therefore, to consider what should be the partnership between the B.C.C. and other educational institutions in the interest of the common cause. There are many bodies, both public and voluntary, which are engaged either in creating a demand for education or in attempting to satisfy it. For instance, it is many years now since the universities of this country first learnt that, as the healthy man is a student all his life, they as national institutions had an extramural duty to perform. The University Extension Movement began as an attempt to bring the universities to the people, where the people could not come to the universities. Later on followed the tutorial class, which, by limiting the number of students to about 24 in each case, ' by lengthening the term of study to three years, and by laying stress on the importance of discussion and written work, made the external side of the universities’ activities more intensive. Tutorial classes now cover the land and number many thousands of : students taking a very great number of subjects. They have demonstrated the value of co-operation in study; but because they make* such a heavy demand upon men and women who are actively engaged during the period of study in gaining their daily bread, they are likely as yet only to appeal to a minority and they need a good deal of preliminary and supplementary work. The British Broadcasting Service can take its part in that work, if* it has the help of other agencies, and the whole problem of adult education is viewed as a whole. The Two Audiences. The question has to be considered both from the broadcasting .and the receiving end: and it must always be remembered that the 8.8. C. has a duty to the general public as well as to the serious student. At the present time the talk has to take its place along with “pure entertainment.’’ It has therefore to be both short and popular; but brevity can mean the art of expression, and popularity the appeal of the great. When in the future the system of regional sattions of increased power is established it will be possible for the new' corporation to supply an alternative programme for the more serious student; though it is hoped that the more popiffar talk in the general programme will not be dropped, for it has its own function to perform. “Study Circles.” Very soon it is the intention of the authorities to arrange for talks especially designed for study circles. Organisation is therefore necessary on the receiving side, and it is here that ■voluntary bodies such as the Workers’ Educational Association, the Y.M.C.A. and the Women’s Institutes might play their part, in forming groups, in arranging for a leader of the discussion, and providing the facilities for listen-ing-in. These listening-in groups have up to the present been of two kinds: la) Where the group hears the talk collectively and the discussion takes place immediately afterwards: (b) Where the members listen in their own homes or elsewhere and meet together afterwards to discuss. The present writer, who has experimented on these lines, has found that the latter is the more successful; but in many cases the subject of study is a difficulty with regard to non-vocational subjects. For controversial every-day questions, which are the life of discussion and citizenship, may on that account be ruled out of order. In the past, academic teachers engaged in adult education have often made a mistake in treating social subjects, such as economics or history, with no reference to the lives of their hearers. The aim should be to raise questions which will sitmulatc study and interest, but to treat them scientifically. What of a Diploma? It remains to consider how far it may be possible to follow a foreign example and awake interest in the more intensive courses by holding an examination and granting a diploma on the conclusion of the lectures. In this country transmission to schools has \ T*>en succeeded by an examination, with happy results; and in vocational subjects no difficulty should arise in this matter (provided that the author- , ity granting the diploma is adequate), but in non-vocational work the granting of a diploma is against the tutorial class tradition, though not of that of the University Extension Movement. In all these questions it will be the duty of the extra-mural departments of our universities to give their help to the new corporation. Broadcasting in education has come, not to act as a substitute for the “personal touch,” but to supplement what is already j being done on the passage to the sun.