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May. 17, 2006
Educational Television, Untapped Potential?
 Images
are powerful. They tell us stories which have the ability to appeal
directly to our emotions. In 1921, Frederick R. Barnard retold a
Chinese proverb, "One look is worth a thousand words" in Printer's Ink.
This so accurately described the power of visual imagery that all the
English speaking countries of the world know the altered form of this
saying: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Due to the power and
prevalence of television, we are bombared with millions of images per
day. Television shows, advertisements and news broadcasts flood our
minds with images as we passively and in many ways unconsciously
observe and store them. Some of these images stand out. Due to their
emotional impact, they seem to linger. Natural disasters, wars, human
suffering along with our greatest triumphs and failures as a nation are
delivered into our living rooms daily. We are united through the visual
medium of television.
 Part
of the power of these images is in the fact that they bypass the
critically thinking "left brain" and are processed immediately and
emotionally in the "right brain." Still, is it possible to tap some of
this potential for bringing the daily experiences of the entire world
into our classrooms and homeschools without succumbing to the
difficulties I outlined previously?
My main objections to the educational use of television is that it
effectively turns off the ability for critical thinking. I strive to
teach my children to reason critically and this does not seem to mesh
well with what research shows happens to the brain during television
viewing. But there at least seems to be a great potential, as well.
Here are some instructional strategies I have used when incorporating
videos when I taught. I have not yet used videos for instructional
purposes in my homeschool.
1) Give the assignment before
viewing. Expect students to look for particular events, images,
details, etc. and record them while watching. Teach them to take notes
as they would during a lecture or while reading a book for research
purposes.
2) Do not turn off the lights.
3) Remain next to the television.
4)
Interact with the video. Direct the students' attention to particular
parts of the screen and give information, pose questions and encourage
students to reflect.
5) When appropriate, watch only a brief
segment of a video as an introduction to a lesson. If you are studying
hurricanes, for example, you might begin with several minutes of a
video showing a hurricane's landfall. Stop the video and have students
write down what they saw, thought and felt. Ask what they think will
happen next. Go on with your lesson. You might choose to come back to
other parts later as your study progresses. You do not have to watch an
entire video, and you do not have to watch segments in order. This is
much more effective than doing a lesson and then watching a video for
review.
6) A few minutes of a video can also be an excellent
writing prompt in that it does appeal immediately to the emotions. The
child can then write the story and never needs to see the rest of the
video.
7) With longer selections, pause the video frequently.
Keep the students minds engaged by stopping the video, asking
questions, rewinding to look at a certain aspect and answering student
questions.
8) Watch a selection (even advertisements work for
this exercise) without comment. When it is done, have students reflect
and write about the emotional impact of what they saw. Encourage them
to identify what made them feel the way they did and why the directors
chose certain elements. Watch it again and help draw out the emotional
elements...expressions, music, lighting, etc. Analyze it as a piece of
artwork and engage students in reasoning how these elements work
together to present a powerful image left in our mind.
9) Try
this with the sound turned off. This was a very powerful lesson on the
holocaust for me in junior high. I still remember the impact of the
images and the sense of disgust, horror and physical illness that
accompanied 30 minutes of video without words.
10) Let the
students know they are going to watch a news broadcast. Let them know
they will be expected to come up with five (varied according to age and
length of broadcast) questions for the newscasters regarding the story.
Teach them to watch the news critically. The intent of
these strategies is threefold. First, these help to prevent students
from completely passive viewing through frequent interruptions and
questioning to stimulate reasoning. Second, children will be exposed to
television and it is important to teach them to view critically. Third,
some of these activities actually take advantage of televisions
inherent tendency to appeal directly to the emotions in order to use
this for an educational advantage. Students should still be taught to
process these emotional responses by reasoing through them.
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