Television in Our Schools Part I. Television's Role in Education No ever received such widespread recognition as a potential instructional tool in so short a time as has television. Lantern-slide materials and then, motion pictures made great progress in the first quarter-century after their introduction into the schools. But it was only after the teaching film acquired its sound-track that it began to achieve a measure of acceptance at all commensurate with its true instructional potential. The phonograph fared somewhat better, inasmuch as it afforded the only means of access most schools had, prior to the advent of radio, to the world's great music professionally performed; but, even so, it has only been within the past dozen and a half years that it has been conceded to be a proper medium for types of instructional content other than music. Although educational institutions were numbered among the earliest licensees of radio broadcast stations, as recently as 10 years ago radio still found itself called on to back up its claims to instructional utility with research-evidence of its ability to promote learning. Yet, within the few short years since World War II, television has advanced from the status of an electronic novelty-"one of these scientific wonders of the post-war era”—to the position of a universally heralded medium of instruction. Already, television receiving-sets are making their appearance in schools in practically every part of the country where television-broadcast stations are in operation, particularly, in those localities where part of the station's programing is aimed definitely at serving acknowledged instructional purposes, or where there is invited school participation in programs produced for home audiences. It would be a mistake, however, to assume from this that television receiving-sets have already become as commonplace in our schools as have conventional types of broadcast-utilization equipmentradio receiving sets, loudspeaker outlets of central sound systems, and disc and magnetic-tape recording and playing equipment used for "delayed listening." Nor does there appear, as yet, to be any uniformity as to types and screen sizes of television sets that are coming into classroom use. In the case of using teaching films, it has been rather generally agreed that a 40-inch projection screen is the smallest size acceptable for classroom use. Yet, picture-tube sizes of TV receiving-sets being used for class-group viewing may be anywhere from 12 to 20 inches. This is the experimental stage of development. As has been true with other types of teaching equipment, relatively little of the television-receiving equipment the schools are using seems to have been acquired through outright purchase with regular school funds. In some cases, the manager of a local TV broadcast station places a few sets in selected classrooms to give teachers of the local school system an opportunity to try out certain of the telecasts his station is offering as educational programs. In other instances, it is a local dealer or distributor of radio and television sets who loans a few sets for classroom use in an attempt to promote interest in exploring the educational potentialities of this new communications medium. Outright gifts from local merchants, public-spirited individuals, and civic organizations account for many of the television sets schools actually own. Parent-teacher organizations appear to be active, in many communities, in raising funds for the purchase of sets. Thus, it is impossible to arrive at any close estimate of the number of television sets in use in the schools, short of making a count of the sets actually in use in the schools. What really is significant here is that, whereas in the past, the average school has found it necessary to do a certain amount of planned promotion to organize public support for any proposed instructional innovation, today it appears that a substantial portion of the pressure for school use of television is coming from community service organizations, such as parent-teacher associations and local professional groups. Appeal of Television What is the reason for this? Past experience would tend to establish that community endorsement of the use of any new instructional medium is not likely to be forthcoming until its ability actually to facilitate learning has been amply demonstrated. Yet, in the case of television, there appears to be a universal disposition to consider its utility as an instructional tool to be self-evident. To some extent, no doubt, this attitude is a reflection of the general impact of television on the public as a whole-an impact that stems, in large measure, from the fact that television purports to be the one communications medium capable of making its audience actual eyewitness spectators of events in the process of happening. For the most part, however, this widespread public support for the use of television in the schools is probably an outgrowth of the exceptionally high appeal it appears to hold for young listeners. To appreciate fully the magnitude of this appeal, it is necessary to consider two well-known principles of child psychology. In the first place, it must be remembered that spoken words are merely auditory symbols that the people of any given language group employ, through common consent, to convey to one another the meanings they have derived from experience. It follows, then, that words have meaning for a given individual only insofar as his accumulation of antecedent experiences provide the necessary background for interpretation. Thus, radio can probably bring useful information to the average mature adult listener with a greater economy of time and effort than any other medium of communication, whereas young listeners, characteristically lacking sufficient breadth of experience to provide an adequate foundation of conceptual reference, may find a radio-broadcast presentation of factual or expository material little more than a procession of bewildering abstractions! This is especially true where visualization of size, structure, contour, color, arrangement, patterned movements, or manipulations in sequence are necessary to the full comprehension of what is described or explained. For types of instructional content of this nature, it is fairly obvious that verbal content must be complemented with visual content if it is to be maximally meaningful to children. It is this characteristic of the sound motion-picture-its ability to recreate both the visual and the auditory aspects of reality that makes it so highly effective as an instructional medium. However, there is yet another dimension to reality where the sound motion picture finds itself at somewhat of a disadvantage. The sound motion picture may, in effect, say: "This is what happened," "This is how it happened," "This is how it works," or "This is how to do it," but it can never presume to say: "This is happening now!" Radio, established in the public mind as an on-the-scene reporting medium, has shown itself particularly adept in this respect, despite its inability to convey the visual concomitants of real-life experience. On the occasion of the famous "Man from Mars" broadcast, adult listeners in some places were driven to a state bordering on hysteria by a radio dramatization of a mere work of fiction presented in newscast format, and, it is not unusual for radio listeners to write in to producers of daytime serials begging that appropriate action be taken to avert impending tragedy that is currently menacing the serial's hero or heroine! However, after seeing only a few motion-picture features, even the very young moviegoer learns that the sound film, realistic though it may seem, always pictures something that has already happened. Even the newsreels, he soon discovers, sometimes picture events that were headlined in the newspapers several days before. Though he may savor the full thrills-and-chills enjoyment potential of a serialized Western at the neighborhood movie theater, each successive installment is nothing more than just another chapter of a continued story. He is never under the illusion that the depicted action is taking place at the moment of his seeing it, or that the outcome hangs in the balance. "The people who made the picture,” he knows, "already know 211494-52-2 how it comes out." Neither radio nor the sound motion picture, then, is quite able, alone, to bring children the experience of eyewitness of-themoment reality. Radio can recall actual visual experiences of the listener, but it cannot create visual actuality in the absence of the requisite antecedent experiences. The sound film, though free of this limitation, cannot achieve for its audience any se.. f actually witnessing events in progress at the moment. Television Has Few Limitations 3. Television suffers neither of these limitatio 1. As a form of radiobroadcast transmission, it is capable of on-the-scene reporting of events while they are actually taking place. As a combination aural and visual communications medium, it can make its meanings clear to individuals of even limited background experience. However, television is more than simply a combination of radio and the sound motion picture. Whereas the sound motion picture is an excellent bisensory representation of reality, the live television broadcast becomes, in effect, an eyewitness look at reality in the process of actually happening. Here, then, at last, is a mass-communications medium peculiarly suited to the full perceptive capacities and limitations of young people. Like the motion picture it combines the sounds of living reality (including verbal symbols) with the visual aspects of reality, thereby gaining the ability to convey meanings that have to do with mass and color and pattern arrangements and with time-motion-direction sequences—meanings difficult to communicate to young people through the use of verbal symbols alone. Moreover, except where it broadcasts films and other picture materials, it employs radio's magic of on-the-scene reporting of events in progress to achieve a sense of living reality on the part of its viewers. Admittedly, its picture quality is as yet, not equal to that of properly projected motion pictures in optical sharpness, tone gradations, and steadiness, and, to date, it has not usually been practicable to provide picturesize large enough for comfortable classroom viewing. Then, too, in comparison with "live" broadcasts over FM radio, tone quality over small speaker outlets sometimes leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, the attitude of the average television enthusiast seems to be that even an optically perfect motion picture of an event that has already happened is frequently less satisfying than even a poor view of something that is actually happening at the moment, and that, with television, this feeling of eyewitness presence is already complete without any necessity for audio perfection. To quote a junior-high-school pupil whose attitude seems fairly typical of school-age children in cities that have TV stations: Radio is real enough. But you only hear what's happening. You've got to picture it for yourself. A move is staged. They decide the story they want told, and then they just put in the things they need to put it across. With |