NAEB Newsletter (May 1935)

NAEB-May——4i S. Prall, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. It was very evident from all the remarks of the speakers and from his talk that he is working for and with the educators, that ho has their interest at heart; first, because ho has been president of the Board of School Commissioners of New York City, and, second, because he believes in cleaning up the radio situation. He said that his group was 'ready to cooperate fully and to contribute as far as possible to the final and complete development of a definite practical and workable plan for tho extension, expansion, and modernizing of education by moans of radio broadcasting , "*For a century and more education has been closely limited to the schools. Wo have overlooked the many who are not scholastic; we have left almost entirely out of the picture that largo multitude of men and women beyond the compulsory school age who must find their learning the every day experience of life. Relaxation, growth,, enrichment, and recreation oomo to the public over the radio and this promises to bo almost as significant as an aid to tho school as for those out of school in tho cultivation of the larger modern citizenship objectives,* "Commissioner of education John W. Studobaker was not able to bo present because of the very important meeting which is to be held in Washington, May 15. At this meeting it is hoped that some definite plan for the use of radio by educators will be determined. Mr. Prall was asked many questions by educators about tho length of this meeting and objectives, etc. He said that the main difficulty in handling the situation was that educators were not agreed upon what they really wanted from the radio. It would be his job and the job of the broadcast division of tho . - federal communications commission to work out some definite plan which would be acceptable both to commercial broadcasters and to educators. "Mr. Loucks, executive secretary of the National Association of Broadcasters was one of the speakers Monday morning. He recommended that one experimental station be established to be used as a laboratory by educators with practical broadcasting experience. That each group accept a certain amount of responsibility. Part of a plan has already been developed by Mir. Allen Miller, director of the radio depart¬ ment, University of Chicago. Mr. Miller gave a paper Wednesday morning on the techniques of presenting dealogue-—- He made one suggestion which I believe could be used to advantage to our work here in Indianapolis. He said that three voices were more effective than a larger number in any discussion group on the radio. This suggestion could be used to advantage next year in our Newscast by having two sets of newspaper reporters having three broadcast each time. "Tuesday morning Mr. F. L. Redefer, secretary of the Progressive Education Associ¬ ation talked about radio problems for children and young people. It has been determined by research that children spend on the average of two and a half hours a day listening to tho radio. Mr. Redefer told of an organization in Chicago called the Chicago Society for tho Improvement of Children's Programs. This society is apparently made up of representatives from a great many women's organ¬ izations and other groups. He spoke of the radio committee for better children's programs, organized under tho American Library Association, of the research being done by the National PTA, etc. Children's programs brought about very heated discussion. "Levering Tyson read a lengthy report made by a research engineering group in Washington which established the fact that television would not be in use for ten years, but that facsimile broadcasting would be in operation within two years. Several people were of the opinion that this new facsimile broadcasting would solve the problem for educators. What it is is still not very clear in my mind, but it seems that it is possible for printed material to come rolling out of a radio as