Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

some. It has been possible to see our strengths so we can capitahze on them until our weaknesses are remedied. We have seen the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of specific techniques and know what to work on. The Videotape recorder is an objective, impersonal device rather than a personal weapon, thus it has provided a highly improved form of evaluation. Some of us saw that we were guilty of the same defects we had been trying to correct in our students: faulty phrasing, monotonous droning, halting style, superfluous uh's, ah's and anda's, unpleasantly high pitch, shrillness.of quality, and a pace too slow to maintain interest or too fast for thought and absorption. Of course some teachers found their quality of speech good and thus gained more poise and confidence. Viewing ourselves on the screen has helped us see those little personal mannerisms or eccentricities that even our best friends won't tell us. As one teacher commented after seeing herself, "I make me sick." We can analyze ourselves from a personal standpoint and can check if we are looking into the camera and thus making eye-to-eye contact. A teacher can sit with a supervisor and view another teacher's tape and analyze the principles of good teaching within it at a mutually convenient time. J. HE taped lessons can be showni to PTA's, civic groups and visitors as an aid to the interpretation of the school program— to more complete understanding. By having a lesson taped before time for presentation, it has become possible for studio teachers to be away for important meetings such as the convention of the National Science Teachers Association held in Atlantic City. Another was able to attend a son's college graduation. Another studio teacher was freed to administer a test in another subject matter field. Thus a professional person was made available for the testing job and the lesson was also taught. Dollars were saved. One of the great advantages of using the recorder is related to the overcrowded conditions in one school while a new school is being constructed. The older building is used by the senior high school students in the morning and by the junior high school in the afternoon. Since my seventh grade core-lessons are telecast in the morning, we tape those lessons during the live telecast and play them at a convenient time for the second-shift students in the afternoon. Thus the televised program can continue for all uninterrupted. Tape gives us an opportunity to observe the reaction of a class as the lesson is being taught —the interest of the pupil in the subject matter, the effectiveness of different types of student participation, the need for variety in the pacing of a lesson, the ability of pupils to take notes and to recognize their problems in note-taking, the effectiveness of teaching aids, different types of camera shots and lighting effects. By means of the recorder, the studio teacher can be in two places at the same time. She can be on the TV screen and still be present at school in a remote place for a follow-up. Tl the studio teacher is able to keep in touch w the reality of the classroom situation, to sei tlie problems, to get suggestions firsthand fr the classroom teacher. It enables the stude to know the studio teacher as a real person rati than as a picture on a screen. It is now possible for us to use, and keep future use, resources far beyond a teacher's gre est dream. In the spring of '59, students from countries spent a week in Hagerstown studyi the educational set-up. These students were us on our telecasts in interviews, discussions, in j tional dances, in games, in singing, in playi musical instruments common to their count in making handicrafts, and wearing their natioi dress. Many of these experiences were tap for future use. An expert, such as a leather carver, can coi from a distant point and tape a demonstrati of leather carving, another can demonstrate t weaving and judging of oriental rugs, anoth the importance of map reading to the defen of our country, and still others how they crossthe Sahara by motor scooter. These can be pi served indefinitely for timely telecasting. How has my teaching ability improved wi television? Television has made it possible f me to look each pupil in the eye and talk ai think together with him until we have made 1 problem clear. Whenever we need some sketc some model, some map, some clever movir gadget to make the difficult part clearer, we halt as quickly as the Genie of the Camera a produce it and that is at the precise instant v wish it. My pupil (each one of the 1,900) can alwa; see it quite clearly from his "front row" se£i If it is something too precious to move from glass case, there it is right out where he c£ see it and have it turned around. If it is som thing like a loom from Iran, it doesn't just s there— someone who knows shows how it is usei And if it's an oriental rug, it doesn't just han there; he hears why those particular colors an designs are in it, what makes it such a valuab^ one. He sees films and tapes showing the wa people live in the country where it was madi What do I think of teaching by television Television has made the most challenging de mands on teachers and teaching, but in so doin it has softened the arteries of thought. I see fc the School of the Future as little likelihood c teaching without television and the recorder a there is likelihood of books without pictures. 1 has revealed new horizons that stimulate us t further study of how to use this powerful rt source for improving the quality of our teaching Through the use of the recorder, teaching ha been revealed in stark reality. An electronic de vice exposed me and my teaching without ou protective shields of good intentions and con scientious endeavor. I stand with my rationaliza tions, prejudices, and weaknesses clearly revealei before me for just what they are. For, as Rober Bums might have said: "Now some Power the gift hae giv'n us— M We see oursels as ithers see us!" •" 228 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — May, 196(