OCR Text |
Show Oosed Curcuit Captures Campus Comments SUSAN BROWNING j thr"nicle Staff Writer UrSit television is now te "8 trucfons to 1646 Uni- 4d?dte; Sf0fthese' 919 irs'au t enr T C0UrSes which j entirely over television. :,erl reS intrductory 1 is B v q r ? Classes s"ch 1 76. Georprylh0l08y 5' His" Isie I l and Hu- I 'thwlWith 'arge en- circus TV Ut 6 aid 0f :,:SM:quaTer. "lany StU" But win, ifMlt 'aid, 18o:,stu. ' '? take Psv ? t,wo classrooms , '" ad h0!Sy 5 at .one j 280 abided among four rooms can take the humanities human-ities series. Dr. Keith Engar, Director of Radio and Television Service, says that although closed circuit TV is 1 suitable for only about five per cent of the classes offered by the University, these classes ' encompass encom-pass 30 per cent of the students. If one professor from a department de-partment can be used to instruct . a huge class in an introductory subject, more professors will be available to instruct smaller junior and senior classes on a more specialized level. Closed circuit TV is'.the nation- al trend in colleges with enrollment enroll-ment problems, he points out. The University of Miami can accom modate as many as 1,000 students in an instruction period. Dr. David Miller, head of the history department says, "For large classes, closed circuit teaching teach-ing is much better than using an auditorium. Every student has a front seat. "I'd rather teach over television televi-sion than anyother way," he says, "because I like to use a lot of illustrations. There are no maps big enough for use in an aduitorium, but the available avail-able ones are just right for TV." Diagrams, charts and pictures as narrow as 2l2 inches can be spread-out over the entire area , of a TV screen. Television sets ' and desks- are -arranged so that -students are never sitting more than 15 feet away from the picture. pic-ture. The classes originate on the third floor of Orson Spencer Hall in a room that is equipped not only with black boards and chalk but also with two cameras and two monitors. However, it is not a typical television studio. The teacher is still a teacher, not an actor. He is not directed where to stand and where to look, when' to start and when to stop. He runs the show himself. The instructor stands . at a podium. One touch of- a button and the picture of his' face will disappear from the screen and be replaced by a chart or diagram (Continued on page 3) JjTV Challenges Teachers, 5 Aids in Large Classes aj (Continued from page 1) ht or a few minutes of film. And he w can stop the film to make a com-t com-t ment and then return to it again. J A camera slightly in front of him and above his head can focus on k maps or illustrations that he places J on the podium. He can easily point v out small details by superimposing J his finger or a pointer on top of "' the picture. , After taking a course over closed ' circuit television one student corn- Microphones can also be made available in the classrooms and students may ask questions into them, while the professors, wearing wear-ing earphones, can answer immediately. im-mediately. Dr. Miller says that weekly quiz and discussion sections led by graduate student assistants are important. im-portant. "They help clear up misconceptions," mis-conceptions," he says. Also closed circuit television is useful in classes in which the teacher is Dresent in the room. The Geography Department has an overhead camera in operation five hours a day for the purpose of clearer illustrations. In this way, closed circuit TV reaches 297 more students. And education 51 students stu-dents can observe classes in the Stewart School while remaining in Milton Bennion Hall. The advantage of this, according to Dr. Engar, is that all students are observing the same things at once and the professor can make comments and guide their observations. observa-tions. This use of closed circuit involves another 300 students. ; mented that she felt that the teach-"; teach-"; er was better organized than in a regular class. And professors who participate in the program agreed te, that the precision necessary for icit) the process causes them to pre-' pre-' pare more extensively and to in-J in-J tegrate more elements into their j lectures. ( J Both students and teachers ,,F: criticize the lack of student-teach-i in, contact. Dr. Lewis T. Nielson, Professor of Biology, says, "Any- who enjoys teaching would J miss the student contact." But he , : Ms that the other advantages of mr to process make it very worth- In his classes he tries to iu5.., deviate the problem of student J0 Wions by having special slips lot Psed to the students at the be- Sinning of each class. At the start 01 each session he will review the wrous lesson and discuss the it; questions. |