Globally, the production of audio and video resources intended for educational purposes, however defined, is a lucrative business opportunity for the converging broadcasting and publishing industries. Television programmes, such as Open Sesame, or educational CD-ROMs, such as The Island of Dr. Brain, are produced with intended sales in a global market. ‘Educational’ audio and video resources are potentially big business. This chapter attempts to offer an educational perspective on how audio and video media have been, and can be, used to support schooling. This discussion focuses on quite a narrow range of technologies for delivering these media, namely radio, audiocassette recorders, television, and videocassette recorders. No attempt is made to include other information communication technologies. These are explored in detail in a parallel research project being conducted by SAIDE. Before critically discussing the educational merits of different technologies and media, it is necessary to clarify some of the assumptions made about the educational impact of technology-enhanced learning resources; synchronous and asynchronous use of educational broadcast resources; and the educational impact of using different formats and styles.

Although only a few decades have elapsed since radio and television became widely acknowledged in educational circles as useful educational technologies, it is clear that educators still disagree about their respective educational merits(Bates, A. 1984, p.20). The real educational potential of these technologies depends primarily on the ways in which they are used in teaching and learning environments. Educational effectiveness is not – and will never be – intrinsic to any medium or technology. This important assumption underpins all ensuing discussion of some possible educational uses of audio and video resources in schools.(SAIDE, 1997)

Radio and television technologies do provide students with more direct, concrete access to information than traditional ‘chalk and talk’ approaches, where a teacher mediates the flow of information. Potential also exists for technologies to support resource-based learning systems, but several challenges need to be overcome before this can happen. According to the TELI framework report:

Introducing technological hardware into education and training is generally the easiest part of the process, and often ends up being the cheapest in the long term. The development of course materials to be used with such technologies, whether they [are] printed materials, videocassettes, or computer-based materials, is a far more costly and time-consuming process, and is also an ongoing one. Often, however, course materials design and development is the process in which least time and money is invested, with the result that materials developed end up being of little positive educational value.(TELI. The use of technologies in education and training: South African policy perspectives. http://www.icon.co.za/~vgc/spc/ghana.html)

The challenge facing educational television and radio producers is to select and use formats that are attractive to students, but which are simultaneously educationally beneficial. It is common for producers to use formats and styles that children find entertaining, but which do not necessarily make for good educational resources. For example, animated cartoon characters entertain many children, but do not necessarily make a useful educational impact. Educational considerations therefore need to inform when and why certain formats are selected or used. Conversely, another format used in many programmes, the ‘talking head’ or lecture format, is often used in educational television. As has been stated though, this type of format is not entertaining and can in fact reduce the educational impact of the resource. It also reinforces teacher-centred approaches to education and delivery, not interaction.

Concerns with style, which are created by camera angles, lighting, editing, and other techniques, are critical. Often, the style of an educational programme is ‘neutral’ in the sense that traditional lighting or editing is used to create an apparently objective presentation of reality. In response to this, some producers have opted for other styles, largely influenced by advertising images associated with soft drinks, console games, and cross-trainers. In this instance, choice of style is based on perceived popularity.

Educational benefits are not intrinsic to specific styles and formats, and combinations of each can be used to different effect. A danger here, for example, is that much of what is currently produced for children’s television relies on flat cartoon animation to present moralizing messages. Careful evaluation of such material would have to be made before this is reversioned into educational purposes.

The dynamic nature of learning and realities of the South African schooling context demand that a range of technologies be used or combined to support effective attainment of learning outcomes. Curriculum designers, resource managers, teachers and other educators are responsible for deciding whether or not a specific technology enhances attainment of a learning outcome. It is also the responsibility of educators to be aware of how different technologies can be manipulated or used. This responsibility is also of critical importance to producers of audio and video resources, especially those intended for broadcast. It is necessary to consider the educational benefits of audio and video, and how technologies used for delivery affect the educational impact of these resources.(Criticos, C. (1998)) The selection of issues for discussion is based on contextual realities facing South African education.

Audio resources are effective for supporting communication skills and for explanation of concepts. They can be used in combination with other media (such as text, graphics, or video) to provide multi-sensory input, and are important for teaching appreciation of music or identification of sounds. Audio can also be used to create a specific mood or atmosphere. Pronunciation and language skills can be supported. In all these instances though, audio resources, especially radio broadcasts, are transitory. Hence they tend only to support specific types of learning outcomes. For example, they are useful for motivating, illustrating, and enhancing certain learning activities. Several studies indicate that when children perceive the medium through which that learning occurs to be easier to engage with than textual or book-based learning, they can learn more effectively(Langham, J 1990). This is especially true in relation to text-based resources, which are perceived to be less flexible and more difficult than audio resources.

Several underlying assumptions exist about audio resources. One of the most important – and abused – is that audio resources assume homogeneity among listeners. For this reason, many developing countries have developed audio resources (distributed via radio broadcasts) as part of a strategy to democratize distribution of educational materials or correct bias towards urban areas and middle class schools(Olsson, M. 1994). This democratization argument is very powerful, but essentially erroneous. While it may be possible for distribution to be democratized through broadcast, distribution is a quantitative entity. It does not follow logically, however, that educational impact, a qualitative and far more complex entity, will necessarily be similarly democratized or distributed.

Audio has been developed with the intention of supporting achievement of a number of outcomes. Its varied use in classrooms can be classified as points on a continuum, which is associated with different educational impact on school children of different dimensions of use(Bates, A. 1984, p.20). By classifying these uses along a multi-dimensional continuum, trends can be identified at an international level. The most important is that, in developing countries, use is equated with direct teaching at all levels, while, in developed countries, use is equated with enrichment of music, dance, and movement classes in primary schools(Moss, R.; Jones, C. and Gunter, B.1991). When intended for enrichment, audio resources are intentionally not essential to a curriculum. Enrichment-type resources often are designed to reinforce content, skills, or attitudes by increasing children’s motivation to learn(Langham, J 1990). In developing countries, concern with motivation to learn has received high priority because levels of dropout and ‘force-out’ rate, among girls in particular, have continued to increase. Audio resources are also often developed for intentional use with niche target audience such as children with special need; or in contexts characterized by lack of specialists, experts, or specialist equipment and laboratories(Langham, J 1990). In developing countries, audio resources (distributed via radio broadcast) are often intended for use as a direct teaching and curriculum reform tool. The resources are overtly pedagogic, and the dividing line between public broadcaster’s role as an educational provider and educational materials producer is blurred.

It has been suggested that measuring the educational impact of audio resources is dependent on the duration of the intervention, and only over the long term can educational impact be measured(Christensen, P.R. 1990). This implies is that, if audio resources are developed, producers need to appreciate the consequences this will have on production costs, air-time (if distributed via radio broadcast), marketing, and mixed media support strategies such as workbooks or telephonic tutoring.

Audio resources have differing abilities to support interactive learning. Unless interactivity is intentionally part of the instructional design of a resource, it is not likely to be implicit to it. Interactivity has been labelled as the new buzzword of current educators(Burge et al.), but is a concept well-established concept described in a range of theories. For example, in the early twentieth century, Russian psychologist and literary theorist, Lev Vygotsky, described interactivity in terms of mediation and social and cultural processes. He suggested that a child develops because her interactions with the world are mediated – by an adult – in such a way that propels the development process forward. What this means for the production of audio resources is that they will need to be designed to stimulate interaction, mediation, and learning about the ‘unfamiliar’, so that development is propelled forward.

Producers of audio resources have a range of approaches available to them, which they can use to inform their design processes. Without providing a detailed description of theories underpinning these approaches, it is possible to state that contemporary theories provide producers with a rich range of choices for developing audio resources. Some theories challenge our assumptions about what children are like and what they find appealing. For example, if one assumes that children are neither innocent nor naïve about the world, the format of children’s audio resource may become more sophisticated. This may have lead to the creation of a Children’s News radio programme, which indicates that children are being addressed as informed and critical members of the society. Furthermore, if one assumes that children are attracted to the power and authority of intrinsically evil characters, then the use of non-threatening story, characters that suggest that something is ‘fun’, may substantially reduce the likelihood of children enjoying using this resource. It is essential therefore that producers realize that a wide range of approaches and theories is relevant to the development of audio resources.

Audio resources have real potential to assist children with developing communication and language skills through practice. There is, however, some concern about whether or not these resources can do more than simulate a conversation between ‘tape teacher’ and ‘tape student’, and/or whether or not synchronous use of radio broadcasts promotes active learning by that student.(Moulton, J. 1994)

Interactivity in audio resources has benefited from learning theory and has in its best moments, changed the teacher’s role from ‘expert’ to ‘manager or facilitator’ of children’s interactions with one another and with their environment(Moulton, J. 1994). The concept of interactivity has gone some way towards: enhancing the effectiveness of audio resources as learning tools that provide a door to another learning environment; providing is a guide to activities that engage students in learning materials; and, in a small way, challenging traditional classroom interactions between students and teachers.(Moulton, J. 1994)

Instructional design is used here to refer to a systematic process of translating principles of learning and teaching into plans for educational materials and activities, so that these materials assist with the attainment of certain learning outcomes(Smith, P.L. and Ragan, T.J. 1993). It is suggested that to enhance the educational impact of audio resources intended for use in schools, instructional design ‘include activities that help children learn, remember and think(Moulton, J. 1994).’ In materially under-resourced classrooms, typical of many South African schools, learning resources need to include activities that encourage children to construct new and evolving knowledge. In contexts such as these, instructional design processes are all-important and use of technology may be a potential way of encouraging or enhancing that interaction.

Audio resources have been developed for use with a range of learners and to support different learning outcomes. When intended users are students with mild to moderate speech defects, or their teachers, audio resources have some educational benefit. The merits of this in the South African context should not be underestimated given that there are few speech and hearing therapists in the country. Research on children with global reading delays, suggests that children who are simultaneously required look at and listen to text have improved their ability to read and spell(Scrase, R.1997). Children are believed to learn to read by associating the picture of whole words (logograms) and patterns within words (onset and rime) with the sounds and meanings of those words(Scrase, R.1997). The use of audio resources potentially provides children with the opportunity to listen to and look at printed text simultaneously. In schools that do not have the ability to purchase more sophisticated technological teaching aids such as scanners and Voice-Activated Computers, the provision of audio resources, such as radio programmes or audiocassettes, and mixed media support resources, such as worksheets and teacher-guides, can go some way towards achieving important learning goals.

Audio resources have also been used with some success with early childhood development learners and foundation phase students. These resources successfully used auditory stimulation to encourage exploration and development of other sensory experiences and awareness. This form of stimulation can potentially create any environment in a listener’s mind because it relies on the power of imagination and the creativity of scriptwriters, listeners, and caregivers. Audio resources distributed via radio broadcast in Bolivia, stimulated children to learn through seeing, and hearing, touching and interacting with each other and with materials already present in their environment. (Scrase, R.1997).

The challenge in identifying educational strengths of radio is that, as a technology, it is neither glamorous nor new(Bates, A. 1984). Often the educational advantages associated with radio resources for schools are more political than educational. For example, it has been suggested that

In South Africa...where regulated systems of distribution are not prevalent and reaching remote populations is a high priority, radio is the appropriate choice. Supplementary materials can be distributed through other means, such as inserts in newspapers or magazines, will support the radio programs’.(Bosch, A & Crespo, C. 1995)

As was mentioned earlier in this chapter, radio resources can be distributed democratically but educational benefit cannot. Decisions about what can be achieved by radio resources need to be contextualized with reference to educational benefits of radio, rather than focusing exclusively on democratic resource distribution.

Radio resources, because they are broadcast commonly during mainstream schedules, have to compete with other programmes to attract a general audience. Unfortunately radio resources have tend to use unappealing formats. For example, the Nicaraguan radio resource, Radio Mathematica, received criticism from educators who thought it was ‘educationally unsuitable’ because its format was rigid and encouraged mechanistic rote learning among primary school children. The format of Radio Mathematica programmes was based on restricted notions of learning and teaching:

The relationship between the radio voices and the audience mimicked the traditional teacher-student relationship. One spoke, the other kept silent.(AID. (1988). Interactive Radio Instruction: Confronting Crisis in Basic Education. Massachusetts: AID.p. 2-3; and AID. (1988). Radio-assisted community basic education (RADECO). Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press)

The Radio Mathematica resources were based on a tightly structured format, which producers intentionally designed to assist children’s recall of multiplication tables or basic mathematical drills. As an intervention, it was not designed to, nor could it, promote active learning by students. The format also did not make for interesting radio.

Although it was described by its producers as ‘interactive’, Radio Mathematica was an intervention dominated by political and broadcast concerns rather than educational ones. As one of the earliest examples of ‘interactive radio’, this initiative was quite different from contemporary ones. It must be said that, like most concepts, educational broadcasting and interactive radio have evolved significantly since the 1970s, but it is still a reality that radio has limited use.(Moulton, J. 1994)  Radio-based interventions and learning materials are not the panacea so often hoped for by their producers. The fact is that, while radio is one means of mass communication, it is not intrinsically democratic or educational, because critical listening skills are not democratically distributed throughout the population.

We have noted in chapter two that attempts to promote interactive radio resources have been more successful in recent years. Radio Language Arts, in Kenya, experimented with the concept of educational interactivity by designing into programmes, facilitation activities by teachers of children’s learning. When questions were asked by the ‘radio teacher’, the ‘classroom teacher’ had to facilitate children’s responses because questions were designed to allow for more than one response. Radio Language Arts moved away from the traditional ‘conversation’ format, which relied primarily on children listening to a conversation between a ‘radio teacher and student’. Radio Environmental Education in Costa Rica took this one step further in its experimental broadcasts. It did this by encouraging active learning about environmental issues and participation in environmental activities, such as recycling, activities that occurred both in and outside of the classroom(Moulton, J. 1994) .

Audiocassettes are less glamorous than technologies such as the Internet or even television but as an educational technology, potentially have a more positive impact on learning processes than radio.

As a technology, audiocassette recorders give teachers and students the power to record radio resources for asynchronous use. Teachers and students can also purchase complete sets of programmes, which would add the advantages of being well organized and clearly labelled. Another advantage is in the quality of recording is significantly better when formal recording settings and equipment are used. Use of recorded audio resources allows students greater control over the duration of the listening-learning process, as well as its frequency or quantity.

Recording radio broadcasts is not a simple process. The type of equipment available in the home or school (separate radio and tape recorders are less effective for recording than combined radio-tape players), the skills and coordination required to record, and storage and cataloguing of recordings impact on this process. Provision of cheap, efficient, and coordinated distribution of audio resources by the public broadcaster is one way of simplifying the process and encouraging asynchronous use of audio resources.

Audiocassette recordings of radio resources do, however, differ in style and educational effectiveness from audio resources intended for individual use as part of a course. Students have, for example, reported that course-based supplementary audio materials were more helpful than radio-based learning materials intended for broadcast use.(Bates, A. 1984)

Audiocassette resources and associated technologies provide students with stop-start and review facilities, and teachers can exploit the opportunity provided by ‘the hidden nature of the next part of the tape to be played’(Bates, A. 1984). Replay and pause facilities have been found to be effective for analysis or revision-type learning activities.

In combination with print materials, audiocassettes allow for simultaneous audio and visual stimulation, while students to move between media at their own pace. This flexibility is important in resource-based learning and learner-centred education. Use of audiocassettes also allows students and teachers the opportunity to leave their hands and eyes free. Bates lists the following advantages of use audiocassettes as learning materials:

•    To analyse or process detailed visual material…The purpose of the cassette is to ‘talk’ students through the visual material;
•    To enable students through repetition to obtain mastery in learning certain skills or techniques (e.g. analysis of language, language pronunciation, analysis of musical structure and technique, mathematical computation); and
•    To analyse or critically review complex arguments, or carefully structured logical arguments.(Bates, A. 1984)

A variety of formats and styles is available to producers of audiocassette resources. The traditional format of audiocassette resources is the Reith Lectures, where an eminent person presented a series of lectures on cassette. Other possibilities include: ‘talking’ students through a learning process; music; synthesized sound special effects; naturally occurring events; the cacophony of sounds on streets; extracts from political speeches; recordings of sports and dramatic events; or the voices of ordinary people participating in a panel discussion, radio talk show, or phone-in.

The educational value of audiocassette resources is dependent on the extent to which they encourage interactivity. For example, a ‘tape teacher’ or sound special effect can be encouragement (cues) to students to practice pronunciation, translation, grammar, or to turn the page of a printed text. This supports communication and language skill development. Audiocassette resources, if instructionally designed to do so, can encourage students to summarize in written form what they have heard, thereby reinforcing mastery of verbal and written literacy skills.

Audiocassette resources have also been used with secondary school students, to present different points of views of a range of people. They can be used to familiarize students with an argument or even a story or play. It is a useful way for showing students how course materials are linked to events occurring in the wider society. If audiocassettes also include a commentary about an event or experience, they can be useful in motivating students, and allowing them the opportunity to experience emotionally an unfamiliar event.

Video has a wide range of potential educational applications. It is a good medium for providing students with an opportunity to view that which they would not usually experience (for example, the inside of an aeroplane cockpit)(A few examples of what video can powerfully portray are natural processes, wildlife, how another culture or society lives, empathy for the actions of someone else, or examples of classroom activity. Actual or ‘real world’ footage of phenomena can be clearly portrayed). Video can be used to show text and graphics. It can also be used to show a lecture or presentation, often referred to educationally as a ‘talking head’. A person can be shown talking about a subject, and this presentation could either be broadcast live, pre-recorded, or combine live and pre-recorded material. The latter might mean that a presenter could be showing lecture aids, such as notes, diagrams, charts, or photographs while talking through explanations or complementary commentary. Video clippings of processes or of actual events might also be included in such presentations. It can show what is being explained, as it happens in the ‘real world’. Video can be particularly useful educationally for showing movement or procedures.

In a study carried out in the late 1970s(Moss, R.; Jones, C. and Gunter, B.1991), the researcher found a positive correlation between expectations, actual learning and self-evaluation among children. The Israeli study suggested that positive attitude to ‘television’ (implying video resource) supported the learning process. Children believed that they were better able to learn from the video resource. Children perceived print to be more difficult, and it was their expectation that because print is more difficult, it requires more intelligence on the part of the individual. What the Israeli study highlighted was that video resources are effective if students are cued for learning. If viewing is mediated in such a way that children are supposed to ‘learn’ rather than just ‘view’ the programme, there is a greater gain of knowledge.(Moss, R.; Jones, C. and Gunter, B.1991)

Video can be used to capture and reflect on student performance. For example, teachers could learn by seeing themselves in the classroom, actors or sports players can reflect on their performance, and students, might improve their presentation skills by seeing how they come across. With a video camera, students can produce videos, using this to present an assignment or task or share an experience with other students. Although the above uses of video may be regarded to be the domain of small and expensive educational courses or programmes, this need not necessarily be so. Snippets of material developed in the above ways might quite conceivably be integrated into video resources that are broadcast via television or distributed on videocassette.

One way in which the educational impact of video resources can be measured is to examine its impact on student and teacher interactions. In South Africa, a typical student-teacher interaction is authoritarian, rigidly structured(Donald, D. 1991), and does not invite flexible or challenging interactions between teacher and pupil. (Ironically, it is these types of interactions that are necessary for supporting participative democracy in society). Educators and broadcasters agree that video makes innovatory styles of teaching and learning possible(Moses, D. and Croll, P. 199), and shared student/teacher viewing potentially can change the power dynamic between teacher and student. Of course, it can as easily reinforce authoritarian teacher-centred approaches if used poorly.

Multi-cultural classrooms are often sites of hegemonic struggle for cultural dominance (usually invisible struggles but there nonetheless)(Walkerdine, V. 1991). Thus, for example, the content of a geography lesson on ‘farming technology’ can benefit from video information on traditional and non-traditional methods, with which the teacher may be unfamiliar. Video resources can provide support to teachers within a multi-cultural classroom(Moses, D. and Croll, P. 199), and have the potential to challenge often-invisible resistance to alternative viewpoints in a classroom.

Discussions about video resources, distributed via television broadcast or videocassette are clouded by poorly defined jargon such as ‘window on the world’. In an attempt to rectify this, we focus instead on cognitive processes underlying learning. Video-based learning resources can introduce interesting factors into debates about the merits of literacy versus oral-based learning and cultures. The use of video resources such as archival footage might add to an understanding of the history of a country. Because video resources most often are accompanied by audio tricks, they tend to rely on multiple media to present information that is neither purely oral nor purely literal. In this way, video can show behaviour, nuance, and relationships in a variety of contexts that simultaneously demand oral and literary skills.(Moses, D. and Croll, P. 199)

Slow-motion camera techniques allow concepts such as space, time and infinity to be depicted using visual and audio stimulation. In this way, young children can be provided with the opportunity to engage with difficult concepts without literal coding(Moses, D. and Croll, P. 199). With technological developments and innovation, more expansive and sophisticated content– such as sub-atomic reactions or the Mars landing – can be included in video resources. This appears to have some application to resources developed for use in mainstreamed classrooms.

Video resources can assist students with mild sight disabilities. For example, phenomena that such students often miss out on because things are not normally magnified or fly away too quickly can be viewed more easily with slow-motion techniques. However, not all such resources have to specify that they will assist such children. Even if a resource is not specifically aimed at sight impaired children, it can still pay subtle attention to their needs in a mainstream classroom. Simply by including slow motion and close-up camera techniques more than usual, this can enhance social inclusivity of disabled student within a school community. Social inclusivity between these different children is essential(Langham, J 1990). Shared viewing experiences can support other efforts to diminish stigmatization of disabled students in mainstream classrooms.

Video does impact on children’s cognitive development, and, as will be discussed in more detail, this challenges our assumptions about children’s minds. As a medium, video can be described as ephemeral and fleeting(Kelley, P., 1998). Video content can exploit this, and, if instructionally designed to do so, can assist children with integrating theory and practice. The way in which video content is put together and presented also impacts on how well information is retained by children(Moss, R.; Jones, C. and Gunter, B.1991). Recall from different media is determined largely by how well a ‘programme’ is put together, and because video resources rely primarily on visual content cues, they can enhances and develop children’s inferential skills.

Video’s potential impact on children breaks down traditional notions of children’s cognitive development. Visual literacy (VL) skills are best developed through use of video resources, such as good television programmes. VL generally refers to intentional reading, interpretation, understanding and production of messages in a visual format, including visual language, visual thinking, and visual learning. It is dependent on our most dominant sense, sight, and when challenged, titillated or developed, increases self-awareness. The reality of intercontinental communication, which uses both iconic and non-iconic communication, underpins the demand for increased VL skills(Avgerinou, M. and Ericson, J. 1997). Several studies indicate that significant and positive relationships exist between VL and a range of educational outcomes. For example, the benefits of VL include increased verbal skills, improved self-expression, and ability to order ideas (an analytical skill essential for understanding how discourses operate); and increased motivation and interest. VL applications have also been extended for use with children and adults with some forms of disability (in particular deaf children) and indicate that creative interventions lead to an improved image of self in relation to world; improved self-reliance, independence, and confidence among these children(Ausburn and Ausburn cited in Avgerinou et al. Op cit). Of course, for all individuals, there is the benefit that ‘the development of VL will also result in increasing the ability to better comprehend today’s world.’(Avgerinou, M. and Ericson, J. 1997)

The increased demand for VL skills is often one of the reasons used by romantic, pro-technology groups’ to justify their argument that each classroom must have a television. Visual displays of information in the information age, are widespread and growing in sophistication, and clearly children’s cognitive development must by necessity, include the development of these skills. Findings from cognitive research supports these claims: today’s children draw on visual memories several hundred times more often than their parents, who rely mostly on literal associations. The demand for enhanced VL skills, demands that we reconsider the traditional schism between logical/verbal/numeric and spatial understanding/ manipulation/imagery skills. In fact, VL research suggests a stronger interdependence between these skills and encourages that both be developed together and not to the other’s detriment. As with all other skills, however, the development of VL skills in video resources must be an overt objective of the instructional design process. Simply watching video does not ‘automatically’ develop VL skills.

The relationship between video, cognition, and language has been less clearly and rigorously researched. Most studies indicate that video resources in the classroom provide children with information on cultures and countries, thus acting as supplements to the process of language learning and teaching. Several studies indicate that multi-lingualism contributes positively to cognitive flexibility and transformation. Thus exploring the links between video, language teaching and multi-lingualism provides an important opportunity for South African educational resource developers.

Video resources have been used to teach science at primary school levels(see Aicken’s UK study cited in Langham, J. Op cit). Opportunities exist for using video resources in science. These deserve consideration, given the implications that maths phobia has on school performance and access to tertiary education(Macloed, C. 1995). This means that video resources should not be instructionally designed to (or even can) ‘show’, ‘replace’, or ‘simulate’ practical learning in a scientific laboratory. Rather these resources can be used to motivate children to learn, as well as to change expectations about science education.

The educational impact of video resources depends, at least in part, on the extent to which instructional designers include interactive learning activities for students. Viewers, whether adults or children, do not come to the screen with ‘empty minds’ but have prior learning experiences that are relevant to how they access and use visual information. In an age where we are expected to receive, process and discriminate between messages at very high levels, video resources need to challenge what students know and potentially can know. The inclusion of recognition of prior learning (RPL) principles into the instructional design process (especially of television and radio broadcasts) is however complicated by the fact that audiences tend to be assumed to be ‘homogeneous’, while distribution of the message is ‘democratic’.

A correlation exists between video comprehension and reading comprehension(Kelley, P. and Gunter, B. 1996), as does a cognitive interdependence between viewing and reading skills. Educationally, video’s strength is the attractiveness of its content, not its complexity. This is important for developing and using video resources in the classroom. Several international studies have examined this issue, and it is clear that learning from video is only possible if teachers and parents support a young student’s learning process(Kelley, P., 1998). Conceptualization of viewing has changed significantly to the extent that it is now commonly regarded as a skill that can be taught(Kelley, P., 1998). Learning from video therefore demands the development of particular skills. One study tested this hypothesis, and found that, if viewing skills are taught to children, it significantly improves their ability to learn from video resources.(Kelley, P., 1998)

Learning is therefore a process dependent on mastery of a range of skills, but no universal formula exists and different factors impact on its qualitative nature. Cross-cultural studies suggest that attitudes, gender, and presentation styles (used in the resource) affect the learning processes of different children(Kelley, P., 1998). The difficulty, however, is that video often assumes homogeneity among users. Hence, instructional design processes need to take cognisance of cross-cultural diversity, especially if a resource is intended for use in a multi-cultural society.

Another difference arises from generational shifts in cognition. Each generation of students learns differently from others, both qualitatively and quantitatively. These differences were highlighted in a British study(Kemelfield cited in Langham, J. Op cit) on children’s cognition, in which researchers found that children’s cognitive abilities within the contemporary visual age are fundamentally different from those of adults educated 30 years ago (a group of adults whose age matched those of the children’s parents). The study examined children’s responses to visual categorization tasks that followed a viewing session. These children did not use the researcher’s categorization framework for pairing images (for example, pairing a giraffe and a monkey as ‘animals’), but carried out novel and interesting pairings (for example, pairing a giraffe and soldier because they shared camouflage abilities). The video resource used in this study was a recorded television broadcast, which showed that with asynchronous use, video media and technologies stimulated analytical skills, but with fundamentally different outcomes than anticipated in the original research design(Langham, J 1990). The importance of this study was the fact that it revealed the qualitative and quantitative (i.e. the speed) shifts of inter-generation cognitive transformation among children raised within a world of television and visual media.

This was supported by the findings of an American study, conducted by the Yale Family Television Research and Consultation Centre. The study showed that video resources had a positive impact on the cognitive development of elementary school children. These children were able to recognize different formats and styles and to develop critical skills. Traditional theories of cognitive development regard critical thought as something that is only possible in late adolescence and early adulthood, but these findings challenge assumptions about what children can and cannot do.

Debates about the educational merits of television are complicated by the agendas of two dominant schools of thought. The first(Selwyn, N. 1997) argues that television has a profound and positive effect on all children at all types of schools. Romantic notions of the educational potential of television often use unqualified, nebulous clichés such ‘window on the world’ or ‘stimulus for the imagination’, without critical awareness of what this means in educational terms. The second, more dominant school(Langham, J 1990) has effectively steered most studies on education and television towards a negative, narrow focus on television’s impact on children’s weaknesses.

As a technology, television is complex, and television audiences are similarly complex and diverse(Langham, J 1990). This complexity and diversity means that we must recognize that questions such as

‘Can children or adults learn from television and if so, how?’ will never be amenable to categorical answers, never mind proof.(Langham, J 1990)

There are no easy solutions and no universal formula for creating successful educational television, although there are certain limitations and strengths that do need to be recognized.

While there is debate about whether or not television resources improve academic ability (or whether or not high scorers would achieve good results anyway)(Kelley, P., 1998), there is evidence that video is a difficult medium to comprehend, and television broadcasts exacerbate this difficulty. Students may therefore experience real difficulty in fully comprehending messages that are intellectually or artistically challenging(Kelley, P., 1998). Other factors, such as time of viewing, have an impact on educational effects of television.

Video resources distributed via terrestrial or satellite television broadcast are subject to several limitations. The most notable are:

•    Students are required to gather at a certain place (where a television is) at a certain time;
•    Students have no control over the pacing of the broadcast;
•    Broadcasts tend to encourage passivity among students (and strategies employed to overcome this problem inevitably start generating significant additional cost, usually leading to serious financial inefficiency);
•    Integrating other media with video broadcast live is very difficult to achieve, and, when applied, very often leads to inefficient use of both broadcast technology (an example of this might be leaving ‘dead’ spaces to allow students to consult a printed resource) and the medium (this type of integration most often leads to quite boring television); and
•    Broadcasts tend to be organized in time packages that are much longer than the time an average student is able to concentrate fully on the television screen.
For this reason, television-based resources should – but unfortunately many do not – avoid overtly didactic formats and presentations.

Television broadcasts do however offer students and teachers the opportunity to record video resources, which can then be used asynchronously. If conceived in this way, television-broadcasting infrastructure is little more than an alternative distribution mechanism. This also demands that broadcasts distribute non-broadcast resources (for example, workbooks) that support students and teachers’ use of the resource.

In Africa, it has been stated that the real potentials of television resources are not well understood or recognized by teachers and care-givers as educationally beneficial to children. This was a central concern at a workshop on African broadcasters held in Zimbabwe in the early 1990s. One reason given for the limited amount of children’s and school’s radio and television broadcasting in Africa, was the perceived lack of capacity to produce specialist programming, particularly children’s educational television. Another reason was that production teams did not include a range of specialists outside of broadcasting circles such as educational or psychological specialists who could collaborate to produce programmes and learning materials(RNTC. Op cit). This is an important lesson for SABC Education production processes, which should aim to include suitable educational specialists, and possibly, colleagues and professionals from other African countries.

Educational research has tended to conflate the relationship between video and learning with videocassette and television technology. Hence much of what is described as television research is actually about video stimulation delivered on videocassette. It is essential therefore that issues of technology not be conflated with issues of media. Videocassette technology can be used to record television broadcasts, thus allowing asynchronous use of broadcast. Students or teachers can choose when to screen a video, and which sections of it to use. It can be paused, or rewound, and reviewed if desired. This can be educationally useful if, for example, sections of a video (particularly those depicting movement or procedures) need to be shown repeatedly. The ability to watch and re-watch video can be exploited by students using video as part of a self-paced, resource-based learning environment, in which they use resources in their own time. All of these features facilitate the integration of use of other media and stimulation with the viewing process. In a structured learning environment, videos can also be stored for re-use every time a course is run, allowing for effective amortisation of costs over time and student numbers(SAIDE 1997). Design of video resources intended for synchronous broadcast use is thus qualitatively different from design of resources intended for videocassette distribution.

It is essential to keep practical considerations in mind when developing video resources, especially if intended for use with special education need students. For example, physically disabled children may take a lot longer to move in and out of a viewing room; while children with attention deficit disorder may not be able to concentrate during a viewing session. It is also essential that video resources – irrespective of distribution – not be regarded as an educational panacea. Students with severe disabilities such as autism or severe language problems do not appear to benefit from video-based interventions(Langham, J 1990), and the level of impact does not justify the costs associated with development.