NER Washington forum; Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, part three

The instructional division welcomes the prospect of a study of instructional broadcasting. Of the stature of that completed by the Carnegie Commission on Public Television. The voice you just heard was that of George Bayard director of education for the South Carolina Educational Television Network. Our guest this week on the NE our Washington forum as we again present further condensation of testimony presented to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on communications as the committee probe of the proposed public television Act of 1967. The ne r Washington forum is a weekly program concerned with the important issues before us as a nation. This program was produced by the national educational radio network through the first several days of W am UFA American University Radio in Washington D.C. I many our public affairs director Bill Greenwood. Representatives of the nation's educational television stations were given

considerable time to present their case recently as the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on communications considered the proposed public television Act of 1967. The case for instructional television was presented by George Beyer. I am George Baird director of education for the South Carolina Educational Television Network. A state supported effort which for eight years has been seeking ways. To use closed circuit television as an effective learning resource. For school children in South Carolina. The Carnegie Commission Report wisely stated that the study of instructional broadcasting must be done in the context of education. Not as an entity in and of itself. The goal I think must be not to provide more television and radio. But to enhance and rich and extend educational opportunity. Through the use of instructional broadcasting.

If the study then can raise its sights beyond the particulars of section 3 0 2 of that bell. To this and have extension enhancement and enrichment. Then it will be able to provide guidance to both the federal government. And to the educator. Who needs that kind of guidance. And I think. Because of the context of education I'd like to turn to the other persons who have come with me for brief statements. Here to speak more particularly to research and study that's already been undertaken in instructional broadcasting. Is Dr. Leslie Greenhill whom I have introduced from in plain view or. Are the importance of these areas of instructional television. Would you in your presentation give us the experiences you've had thus far and to what extent it's being utilized. Yes sir. And how

effective it is. Yes I think the public at large will be very much interested in that. Yes. We keep saying instructional television Well I think most people understand what their that is but a lot of people don't really know the proportion of it unless you men who are experts in the field. And that was for me as well. I can speak of course and. Most particularly of our experience in South Carolina but with some extension of that to other areas of the country. There are. As you well know. Vast numbers of children out there who need to be educated. And this country long ago committed itself. To offering educational opportunity to all children. And it has some difficulties in making that opportunity. Available. In equal quality and maybe even in equal quantity. And so. It has always sought ways. Are the educator

has always sought ways. To enhance the quality of education for the children that they are responsible for. The introduction of. Technological devices to education of course is not new. There is a whole long history of audio visual. Devices in education. And a whole set of statistics and data and evidence that indicates that. The child who is exposed to. More stimuli than the teacher in the textbook is more likely to learn. Than. The child who is not. Into this context. Finally comes the technology of television and radio. And for many years particularly in radio. There have been efforts to discover what it is that radio can

peculiarly do. What. And eventually what television can peculiarly do to extend opportunities for learning. Some a dozen years ago. Television finally became rather directly involved in instructional process sees. Through the development of educational broadcasting stations. And. In the in the 12 to 14 years that this effort has been mounted. Some things have become rather clear. First some people in the back and heaved out first that. These. Electronic devices can distribute. Instruction. Widely. This is inherent in the media and. Radio and television are distribution devices. And initially I would say this was the major effort that was

mounted simply to use these devices to. Distribute instructional learning resources. Increasingly however it's become apparent. That this alone. Is not realizing the full potential. Of what television may do. And radio likewise. And increasingly it's becoming clear. That perhaps the process sees involved in. Developing materials for instructional broadcasting are at least as important as the end product which is the program. Either the lesson or whatever it may be. So that one of the striking things about the application of. Technology to education is what it does to and for education as a process.

Of broadcasting of any kind. Extends. The concern for the educational process for example beyond the single district. And rather uniquely asks educators to combine their resources their concerns their commitments. To common problems and common goals. This perhaps is one of the more provocative developments in instructional broadcasting is the bringing together. Of resources. To apply them to common problems and common goals. Simply because the broadcast goes beyond the school district limits. Now of the hundred some broadcasting TV stations in the country. I would assume that each of them all of them. Serve the.

Public schools and some institutions of higher learning in their. In their broadcast area. This varies in terms of the number of hours per day spent. In doing this sort of thing. From I don't know. Two hours to six hours something like this. But each of them. Makes this kind of a commitment to this kind of service. They work with. Combinations usually of school districts. The educational broadcaster does not make the decisions as to content or method. This is done by the educators. The educational broadcaster then provides the production facilities for the lessons and the transmission capacity. This means that. There is a broad effort. By broad I mean

nationwide where these stations are. To discover ways in which television can reach children. Now there is some confusion as to the specific number of children that are reached. This is a complex question. It's what this is an age of data gathering and a superintendent of schools. Must have on his desk at any given number of at any given moment numbers of. Forms that he's asked to fill out on how many children I'm getting at though Doctor is this a hit or miss process. Oh probably that maybe some child will look at it. Or is this a well-organized effort in other words I would leaving it up to his 7 year old child. To decide for himself or herself whether she or he will look at how the duty on look at this educational. Not at all PS. and so I know he's or isn't it better organized and then YES or it's organized Why do they say to this you have no way of saying how many children we're reaching.

It's well organized and it's it's organized through the school system. That is these programs I received in classrooms but simply getting data on the number of children in those classrooms has some I think it would not but it comes right into the classroom is that correct. Yes or yes or under a well-organized plan. It is received by the you know a teacher there with the children. She or he knows what's coming on the television has prepared for it. It's a part of the lessons that she is evolving for these children and is this used widely in your state. Yes there are. Some 600000 school children in South Carolina about 170000 participate weekly in educational television now. We don't have the facilities to reach all the children.

So we're doing pretty well in terms of what I would you would teach your arithmetic English history. What will we offer materials on in in a read my chicken mathematics from the fourth grade through the 12th. We offer a ninth grade physical science course and a chemistry course we offer elementary school science at the fourth and fifth grade level we are now using this tremendous number of children would be receiving it more or less at the same time. This is so well organized. Yes right. Yes and you have some. Very very fine teachers who put on the performance. Yes or. Who does the teaching. Teachers and teachers don't like to be called performers. While. Performing in theater. Yes. You. Lack. The facilities. To reach more than the portion of children you're reading that Senator Cotton. You mean by that that you allow the local. Educational

stations. To cover the area. Or do you mean. That you've been unable to organize a sufficient number of schools over an extended area so at the same time in the day. On the same subject. They could all just their program so that they are all getting instruction in this particular subject at that particular hour. To the first question. We do not yet have. Broadcast facilities to cover the state so that we do lack physical facilities although. Thanks to the educational facilities act we do have the three stations and this year we'll have two more which will complete our broadcast capacity. The second question is somewhat more involved because it is not our intention. To see to it that all children in South Carolina in the fourth grade

are learning about the same thing at the same time. It's for this reason that we have a very complex system in South Carolina of both. Multi channel closed circuit and broadcast. So that we can offer a variety of opportunities. And make it easier particularly for secondary level scheduling. This kind of thing. But it is I don't think any place where it is the attempt on the part of the involvement of television. To have all children directing their ad at any given eleventh level directing their attention to the same subject at the same time. This is. In basic opposition to a faith that the American educator has that. There are local differences which must be accounted for. Would you say that the element of integration is implicit I was then exhilarated the need. By all means. Yes I would. I mean that's what you

begin to say in the beginning. I not until you have mentioned it. But but it has been a factor by all means. The necessity for. Achieving something like equal opportunity for children. Of a system that's what I meant by you know use that expression No I wasn't. Then you know you're putting your finger on. Well I think television has a big educational broadcasting television and radio have a. Have given us a peculiar opportunity. To reach the isolated in the segregated school isolated by geography segregated by custom. And to offer a special kind of opportunity for learning and healing for the lack of peaches which may be a temporary emergency problem. Yes or in a temporary sense yes. I don't think that oh I wouldn't advocate that I would want to see any instrumentality replace the human element perhaps less fill in for the teacher than assist the teacher

in his professional development also through participation in this. I will take that one second you up. Your point. Is not so much that you fear the standardization of control of education. If a certain hour one day all of the state of South Carolina devoted to the teaching of some subject as an attack that a sophisticated school in a lodge and rich city. Has the teaching facilities so that they do not need this as much as an isolated school in a more impoverished area to too great an extent in our time. A child's opportunity to learn is still limited by the accident of where he was born. And I just think you know like to the community in which we live. Yes or this is what I'm getting at. And

he has no choice here and it seems to me through the development of educational broadcasting facilities we give him access. But he doesn't have it. Now to Dr. Leslie greenhouse. All right Zach you know first. One of my responsibilities at the Pennsylvania State University. Is the administration of a large closed circuit television system which is used for the direct instruction of students in regular courses at Penn State was one of the pioneers in the instructional television field. We've been using television since 1954 and during the last academic year for example we presented twenty eight different courses ranging from accounting to as our GI in going through history and mathematics and so forth to students some 15000 students enrolled in these courses. My own personal interest has also been in research on instructional television Instructional Films and other educational media for the past 20 years.

We use the term instructional television to refer to the use of television for the presentation of formal instruction in regular classrooms. And I part of the normal curriculum. Instructional television is being used for a wide number of different purposes but the central ones I believe up to the present time have been the presentation are superior teachers to a larger numbers of students and could either might be arranged to provide these teachers with resources and facilities and assistants that would not be available to most average classroom teachers to present instruction in circumstances where such instruction would not otherwise be available due to geographic or other kind of isolation or because teachers in certain specialized Fayose and it's widely available as might be desired. And a fourth very important use is to store instruction for reuse and for distribution and to make it available more widely either through broadcasting or through

close circuit using microwaves or cables or some other means. I mean if I interrupt you to question me only out of curiosity. Now this is a closer. That's correct it's a close second and the torrents are. Are given the opportunity of this instruction. How is it followed Prue How do you know and how do you find out or how do you test that the student. Has really benefited by this. I mean at what point do you do this. Or has this become so mechanical that a better student is allowed to drift any one way or the other and then the examination comes along and he just didn't get it. I mean it is I'm wondering if in your question yeah. Well basically a televised instruction is really very thoroughly organized instruction. There are a number of different patterns used depending upon the instructional objectives at the college level in some courses. The major part of the instruction may be presented by means of television. In

other courses it's customary to supplement or complement televised instruction by a superior teacher with discussion or laboratory work or some other kind of activity which is deemed to be an important part of the overall instructional situation. So you have a number of different parents that's the first thing and secondly instructional television during the past 12 years has been subject to a great deal of rather careful research. I would say more than most new instructional innovations. The first error of this research the first five or six years I bought was devoted principally to comparisons of televised instruction with conventional direct instruction and in the experiments where the same teachers taught by each method. The most typical result was that the amount of learning by students was the same in each case. In other instances where a period teaches with these additional resources have taught classes and then students who receive this by television.

I have been compared with students who received regular instruction from an average group of teachers in normal classrooms and event conditions in many cases the learning has been sippin area for televised classes. There are a few cases where the learning was not as good but basically where the same teachers teach in better circumstances the learning was equivalent. We have as a period teacher with good resources and the learning tends to be superior. So there's a lot of evidence to indicate that students indeed do learn and learn very well. As I indicated before I think we're only beginning to use some of the ideas that research has developed for improving instructional television programmes and the proposed at the end of this section and might identify certain things that could be done to improve instruction by means of television for example. Research has indicated that it's desirable and feasible to insert problems and questions for students to answer during a television programme

and in this way get student participation. And after they've had a chance to consider the short problem press written answer down then give them immediate knowledge of results and they can check their own learning what building they use participation devices in has been really tempted yet or giving a short test at the beginning of the programme to motivate students or short test at the end as a means of reinforcing learning. The idea of presenting performance tests to students test which go beyond what you can cover with a purely verbal test is another aspect of television which is barely been explored. Perhaps a study can bring some of these into focus. Item to refer to the study of the financial factors involved in the use of instructional television. And in my opinion this is a key factor. As I've indicated before most instructional television programmes are seriously under finance and this is particularly true at the college level where much television

and for instruction is a very minor elaboration of what is normally given in the classroom. This is mostly due to lack of time and lack of money for the necessary supporting resources. I would say that would be a very important part of the study. Item 3 refers to the relative advantages or disadvantages of using instructional television as compared with other media. I'm not quite sure what the intent of the item is as presently written and as I've indicated there's been much research on television for instruction. I think it might be very significant the study could focus on how television might be used in conjunction with other media in terms of the overall course objectives or instructional objectives to achieve these. And that might focus on the weapons sometimes referred to as a systems approach to teaching and learning or the empirical development of courses in which there is a rather careful definition of

learning objectives development of appropriate tests. Then they develop and of course material and methods of presentation and then the testing and refinement of these courses. Item 4 refer to the advantages and disadvantages of close circuit television. And again I am not quite sure what the intent is. I think it would be useful to determine what patterns of closed circuit television equipment would be useful for certain purposes. And I think particularly have closed circuit television and open circuit broadcast that could be used to further the dissemination of instruction particular in the public schools. I'm fired referred to the relationship between instructional and educational television. Most educational television stations of course offered by the general educational programmes of a cultural nature as well as classroom instruction and I think this is a very good thing. However I think that this particular aspect of the study might focus on

developing new ways of using instructional television to serve educational needs. One area that seems to me to be rather minimally used so far is to use television for the re-education postgraduate education of professional people in this age of rapid technological advance professional people in many fields become out of date very quickly. This is particularly true I think for engineers doctors teachers and so forth and television offers one excellent way of updating such people in their field and as I say this is only been used to a very small extent. In conclusion perhaps I can say that in my view the. Whole bill is a good one. Title 3 is like a good title instructional television is here to stay in form a very useful part of our whole educational program. The federal plans already provided for equipping a TV station to be very useful in the expansion of this would certainly

instructional television as well. The modest funds available for close circuit television in colleges and universities and a Title Six of the Higher Education Act of 1965 have been very helpful but I think these resources need to be expanded considerably. If we're going to have any major effect on the use of instructional television at colleges and universities. There is a need and this is a very important point I think the need for training programs to prepare professional people to work in the field of instructional television at the moment is almost no training of such people as people who are concerned with using television to promote learning and most of the people we have that people do be in crane for different uses of television and sometimes as a matter of retraining and I think special training programs would be a great help and thank you very much. It is in fact a green field you inducted you to be in. You have just heard another condensation of testimony presented before the Senate

Commerce Subcommittee on communications recently that occurred as the subcommittee investigated the proposed public television Act of 1967 this week the NE our Washington forum spotlighted witnesses appearing on behalf of instructional television members of the subcommittee who investigated the proposed bill where Senator John Doe passed story the chairman Senator Mike Mann Roney of Oklahoma senator Vance Hartke of Indiana senator Philip a hart of Michigan Russell Long of Louisiana Frank Moss of Utah Hughes Scott of Pennsylvania James B. Pearson of Kansas and Sen. Robert Griffin of Michigan. This program was produced by the national educational radio network through the facilities of W am you FM American University Radio in Washington DC. Next week the ne r Washington forum will present an additional

condensation of testimony before the Senate subcommittee featuring representatives of national educational radio. The key testimony it was presented by any Our Executive Director Gerald Sandler. You will also hear testimony from Fred Harrington a representative of the board of directors of the National Association of educational broadcasters. Next week you will also hear testimony from Bill should tell a representative of the University of Washington a former Capitol News correspondent for CBS and ABC and former president of the Capitol Correspondents Association. Next week at this time the NE our Washington forum condensation will also feature testimony from Dr. Frank Woolsey representing the Albany Medical College. This will occur as the ne r Washington forum condenses testimony on behalf of educational radio. This is

Bill Greenwood inviting you to listen at that time for the NE our Washington forum a weekly program concerned with the important issues before us as a nation. This is the national educational radio network.