NAEB Newsletter (June 1964)

PERSONNEL ^ Bernarr Cooper will be consultant on two workshops this year, at Hofstra University and at New York State Univer¬ sity College at Brockport, and on a symposium on problems in educational television at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cooper is chief of the Bureau of Mass Com¬ munications, University of the State of New York. ^ Karl Haas, director of fine arts for commercial WJR, De¬ troit, has been awarded the Officers’ Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribu¬ tions in deepening cultural relations between the U. S. and Germany, where Haas has been serving the Ford Foundation as Consultant for the Arts. ^ William G. Harley, NAEB president, addressed a special 80th anniversary “problems in education” convocation at New York’s Wagner College on May 2, along with Senator Ken¬ neth Keating. ^ The American Jewish Committee recently presented a spe¬ cial award to Henry H. Mamet, executive director of the Broadcasting Commission of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, for his work in broadcasting. Mamet has been similarly cited by such organizations as the National Conference of Chris¬ tians and Jews and the Academy of Television Arts and Sci¬ ences. INSTRUCTION ^ J. G. Paltridge, coordinator of ETV for the University of California, reports that most colleges use ITV. Out of 22 in¬ stitutions he queried, 20 were so engaged; 16 of the 17 col¬ leges with over 20,000 enrollment and three out of five with enrollment between 10,000 and 20,000 use ITV. ^ In response to a state education department survey, the Alabama ETV Network has scheduled elementary telecourses for 1964-65 to begin at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour, rather than on the half hour as in the previous sched¬ ule. The network distributed 7,000 handbooks describing next year’s telecourses at the state teachers’ convention. WEDU-TV, Tampa, is distributing two teacher-training 10- minute videotapes. “Through the TV Tube” acquaints the prospective studio teacher with TV’s limitations, advantages, and basic techniques. Its sequel, “Teaching by TV,” alerts the classroom teacher as to how ETV can effectively be used as an aid. ^ National School Telecasts of the Canadian Broadcasting System has begun a series of four 20-minute French programs designed to help students develop aural comprehension by showing French as a language spoken in everyday life. ^ Radiovision, a unique method of teaching art to primary school children developed in the U. S. by the Wisconsin School of the Air, will be depicted in a documentary film on inno¬ vations in education to be presented on TV in Great Britain and Canada next fall. The documentary, produced and directed by Theodore Conant, prize-winning filmmaker, will demon¬ strate how radiovision combines radio broadcasts and film clips for classroom use. ^ Elementary school pupils who study Spanish by television excel in other subjects, according to a study made in the St. Paul public schools by Dr. Walter B. Leino, supervisor of tests and measurements. Copies of a summary of this study can be obtained from KTCA-TV, 1640 Como Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108. ^ An average of almost 90 per cent of the 2500 central Texas elementary school teachers responding to a KLRN question¬ naire have voted approval of course content and teaching methods for the in-school programing they receive in science, art, music, and Spanish. KLRN transmits to 43 school sys¬ tems with an average daily attendance of 200,000 children. GENERAL ^ Forty-five Indiana college student broadcasters met recently at Indiana University for a conference on college station pro¬ graming, sponsored by the Indiana Collegiate Broadcasters. I Rabbis from a seven-state area recently attended a regional workshop on effective use of television presented by the Chi¬ cago Board of Rabbis with the cooperation of the American Jewish Committee at the NBC studios in Chicago’s Merchan¬ dise Mart. Purpose of the workshop was “to develop and pro¬ mote a better knowledge of television as a force in society, and to prepare the rabbinate for using the medium, as well as influencing its use for the betterment of mankind.” ^ A grant of $10,000 to Midwest Educational Television, Inc., has been made by the Johnson Foundation of Racine, Wiscon¬ sin, to permit exchange of television programs on a regional basis. Part of the grant will be used to purchase additional videotapes to be used in the program exchange, the remaining share will be used to produce new programs. Member stations of MET are KTCA-TV, Minnesota; KDPS-TV, Des Moines; KUON-TV, Lincoln, Nebraska; WHA-TV, Madison, Wis¬ consin; KUSD-TV, Vermillion, South Dakota; KFME-TV, Fargo, North Dakota; and WMVS-TV, Milwaukee. ^ The Oscar won by WGBH’s documentary feature film, “Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World,” is be¬ lieved to be the first ever captured by an educational television station. The film was shot during the last eighteen months of Frost’s life and is described as a “kind of summing up by the poet himself.” It was written by Robert Hughes and Char¬ lotte Zwerin. Hughes also produced it. The film was sug¬ gested by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall before Frost’s death in January 1963. WGBH, Boston, was recom¬ mended as the producer by Pare Lorentz, a documentary film¬ maker, because the poet had appeared on WGBH often, dis¬ cussing various subjects. ^ One way Alabama is working on its illiteracy (250,000 adult nonreaders in 1960) is through the joint action of its ETV network, women’s clubs, Alabama Literacy Council, the U. S. Office of Education, and a trained group of lay teachers. The six-year-old project, coordinated by the ALC, hopes to teach over 300 adults to read this summer. ^ A $200,000 grant from the Harris Foundation of St. Paul will provide the necessary funds to begin construction of a new home for Chicago’s WTTW and its new sister UHF ETV station. The total project will require $1.2 million. ^ KOAC-AM and KOAP-FM, Corvallis, Oregon, last month sent out a questionnaire to Oregon newspapers asking how the stations could improve their information services to the papers. ^ After ten years of service, the University of Wichita’s en¬ tire educational television department will be disbanded when the U. of W. becomes a state university on July 1. ^ Last month WNED-TV, Buffalo, presented its first In¬ ternational Television Festival. Outstanding TV programs from countries around the globe were broadcast. About two- thirds of the 34 countries asked to participate did so, some of them producing programs especially for the festival. Among the presentations were a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in St. Peter’s Basilica; a pair of programs in dance and music from Thailand; the training of a ballet dancer in Poland; a documentary on falconry from Japan; a consideration of ballet and modern art from Denmark; the history of the tango from. Argentina. Programs varied in length from 8 to 75 minutes. NAEB Newsletter, a monthly publication issued by the Na¬ tional Association of Educational Broadcasters, 119 Gregory Hall, Urbana, III. 61803. $5.00 a year, $7.50 including Washington Re¬ port. Editor: Betty McKenzie. Editorial assistant: Skip Robinson. Phonie 333-0580. Area Code 217. Reporters: Region I —Michael Ambrosino, EEN, 238 Main St., Cambridge, Mass. Region || — Shirley Ford, WUOT, University of Tennessee, Knox- viHe. —Lou Peneguy, AETC, 2151 Highland Ave., Birming¬ ham, Ala. Region IV —Richard Vogl, KTCA-TV, 1640 Como Ave., St. Paul, Minn. 2 NEWSLETTER