Using Television In The Primary School

Little attention has been given to the potential of video recorders and cameras in children's learning. This book attempts to counteract such neglect by giving examples of good practice based on classroom experience.

"A major concern of parents everywhere is the tremendous influence television can exert on their youngsters, but few parents know what to do about it. Here, at last, is a book that not only answers parents' questions about the potentially damaging effects of television on children, but also shows parents how to use television to further a child's growth and understanding."--Jacket.

Teachers & Television (1987) examines the use of television in education. With television being the most powerful medium of mass communication, with tremendous potential as an educational tool, to what extent are teachers considering educational television as a component of the curriculum? This book looks at children’s reactions to educational television, their abilities to process information, and the uses of educational television by schools.

The educational use of television, film, and related media has increased significantly in recent years, but our fundamental understanding of how media communicate information and which instructional purposes they best serve has grown very little. In this book, the author advances an empirically based theory relating media's most basic mode of presentation -- their symbol systems -- to common thought processes and to learning. Drawing on research in semiotics, cognition and cognitive development, psycholinguistics, and mass communication, the author offers a number of propositions concerning the particular kinds of mental processes required by, and the specific mental skills enhanced by, different symbol systems. He then describes a series of controlled experiments and field and cross-cultural studies designed to test these propositions. Based primarily on the symbol system elements of television and film, these studies illustrate under what circumstances and with what types of learners certain kinds of learning and mental skill development occur. These findings are incorporated into a general scheme of reciprocal interactions among symbol systems, learners' cognitions, and their mental activities; and the implications of these relationships for the design and use of instructional materials are explored.