NAEB Newsletter (Oct 1958)

classification why don’t you submit them to the net¬ work? You have nothing to lose, and you may get your series accepted for national distribution. —N A E B— WASHINGTON MEETING REPORTED IN AV MAGAZINE The September, 1958, issue of the AUDIOVISUAL INSTRUCTION carried an excellent article by Miss Alice Finstad, entitled “Soul Searching on the Poto¬ mac.” The subject of her report was the Joint NAEB-U. S. Office of Education Conference on Ed¬ ucational Television and Related Media, held May 26-28 at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in Washington, D. C. In Miss Finstad’s opinion the discussion divided itself into three schools of thought: first, the “AV boys,” who insisted that TV was only one in the whole “array of audio-visual tools,” and kept lead¬ ing the discussions back to the role of learning, re¬ search and evaluation; second, the broadcasters, who pleaded for recognition of broadcast TV as a tool for adult education with importance akin to that of closed-circuit TV which tends to align itself with classroom instruction and which seemingly absorbs the attention of educators at most of these meetings; and third, Alexander J. Stoddard of the Fund for the Advancement of Education, who believes that ETV is not a tool but a revolution and that educators will be missing the boat if they mistake its nature. A comprehensive report of the conference will be released by the Office of Education this fall. —N A E B— ETRC ELECTS NEW OFFICERS: JOHN F. WHITE, PRESIDENT Educator-broadcaster John F. White of Pittsburgh has been elected president of the ETRC, national program headquarters for the nation’s ETV stations, Chairman Ralph Lowell of the Board of Directors announced. White succeeds H. K. Newburn, who resigned earlier this year. The new president, who will asume the position on October 1, has served since 1955 as general man¬ ager of Pittsburgh’s pioneering ETV station WQED. He is a former vice-president of Western Reserve University. Commenting on the election of Mr. White, Chair¬ man Lowell said: “The continued development and growth of ETV nationally requires imagination, vision, and a clear understanding of the needs and responsibilities of this growing medium. John White has proved during his years of educational administra¬ tion and in his energetic management of Pittsburgh’s WQED that he possesses these and many other qualities. We are indeed fortunate to have found such a man to serve as president of the Center.” Kenneth L. Yourd was elevated to the newly created position of vice-president and treasurer of the ETRC. Yourd, who has been acting chief executive officer during the interim period, has been secretary- treasurer since 1954, when the National Educational Television unit was established. Lowell was re-elected chairman of the Center’s Board. He is president of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company and heads the Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council, which operates stations WGBH (FM) and WGBH-TV. The directors also elected two vice-chairmen, Lloyd S. Michael, superintendent of Evanston, Ill., Township High School, and Raymond H. Wittcoff, vice-president of the Carradine Hat Company in St. Louis. _N A E B— STUDENT DISCUSSION PROPOSED FOR INTERNATIONAL TAPE EXCHANGE NAEB members who wish to participate in an in¬ ternational exchange program of taped student dis¬ cussions are invited to contact Dr. Mildred Wilsey, an educator who has initiated such a program. Dr. Wilsey, associate professor of English at Wil¬ son College in Chambersburg, Pa., is offering to loan her tape recordings made when she visited Norway to study the reading habits of that country’s youth, in hopes that her project may expand in scope and become a useful method of international student com¬ munication. Under a UNESCO grant in 1956, Dr. Wilsey did extensive research in the schools of Norway to ex¬ amine and compare their literature with that used in the schools of the United States. As a part of her work, she recorded the voices of a group of high school students who were discussing Henrik Ibsen’s play, Doll's House. This project was so successful that Dr. Wilsey now hopes to develop an exchange of such taped discussions with students of several different countries. In an article published in Top of the News by the American Library Assn., Dr. Wilsey says, “Youth, when given the chance, is always interested in com¬ municating with itself in other lands. A book which has been shared makes an excellent basis for com¬ munication.” OCTOBER, 1958 See You In Omaha 7