wnet/Thirteen in Manhattan, the nation’s largest public-television station, will launch a new “Technology Education Center” this fall with a series of technology-training conferences for educators scheduled during November and December.
“The Technology Education Center,” said Shirley B. Gillette, director of educational programs, “is the education division’s direct response to the challenge posed by the technology explosion--how and where to find up-to-the-minute information, resources, and expert training in the uses of technology.”
The three-day conferences will provide various sessions tailored to the different technology needs of administrators, librarians, and teachers, with seminars on everything from computer applications to how to purchase an appropriate system.
In addition to the conferences, the center will offer workshops and seminars in cooperation with colleges, school districts, microcomputer users’ groups, and training-service organizations in the area.
Further information about the conferences is available from Madelon V. Roth, Technology Education Center, wnet/Thirteen, 356 W. 58th St., New York, N.Y. 10019, (212) 664-7100.
For the 13th consecutive year, the U.S. Education Department has awarded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a grant to study the educational uses of broadcast programs and other telecommunications technologies.
The National Center for Education Statistics will provide $367,000 for the research and the cpb will contribute an additional $250,000.
The joint effort will collect basic information on public broadcasting, its educational activities, and the availablity of educational programs and their use in schools and colleges.
The statistics from this ongoing research provide the only comprehensive data available on the national audience for broadcast educational programs, according to cpb officials.
“A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers” will be broadcast over public-television stations beginning in January 1984. The 20-part series of hour-long programs explores the events, personalities, and mores that have shaped this century--the first in which personalities and great events have been captured on film.
Among the subjects to be explored are the contrasting personalities of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler; World War II propaganda; the automobile; the 1920’s; technology; advertising and public relations; the black experience; world’s fairs; the Great Depression; immigration; and “unforgettable” moments in photographs and film.
The program was funded with a grant from Chevron U.S.A.
Nearly 20 percent of the nation’s school systems own and use videodisc-playback equipment at all levels, according to a recent survey by the Great Plains National Instructional Television Library, an agency connected with the University of Nebraska.
Another 25 percent of the 300 audio-visual-services directors surveyed said they expected their school systems to purchase some type of videodisc equipment within the next two years.
The survey also indicated that the current use of videodiscs for instruction in the United States is highest at the junior- and senior-high levels, and that science, social-studies, English, and mathematics teachers use the equipment more often than others. Features of the equipment used most frequently include its “freeze frame” and search abilities, the survey results showed.
Television viewing squelches family communication, Charles R. Bolz, director of University Research at Louisiana Tech University, told members of the American Psychological Association at a recent conference in Anaheim, Calif.
In a survey of nearly 3,000 households in Southwestern states, Mr. Bolz found that the majority of those surveyed--nearly 90 percent--view television regularly in the evening, and that during that time, family conversations occur in less than one-third of the households. Discussions related to television occurred approximately 10 percent of the time, Mr. Bolz said, and those discussions rarely included any explanation or commentary of the television content.
“Meaningful” family discussions about television content occurred in only 2.5 percent of families surveyed, he said.
The Phillips Petroleum Company is offering teachers and school systems the right to duplicate its educational film series on science and economics free of charge.
The science films illustrate the problem-solving techniques of science in nine segments, the company says, and another five films, narrated by the “Star Trek” star William Shatner, examine the bases of economic growth.
The Federal Reserve Board is also offering public schools the right to duplicate free its public-service films on credit rights and electronic banking.
To request duplication rights to the films, educators must write on school or system letterhead to Video Outreach, c/o the JN Company, P.O. Box 388, Woodbury, N.Y. 11797.
The following programs will be broadcast on public and network television in November:
“The Day After,” an account of the effects of nuclear war seen through the eyes of a doctor after his town has been hit by a nuclear blast, on ABC Nov. 20.
“Thank You Mr. President: The Press Conferences of John F. Kennedy,” on pbs Nov. 22.
“John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightening/Day of Drums,” on pbs Nov. 23.
“High Schools: A Film Essay Based on the 1983 Carnegie Report on the American School,” on pbs Nov. 30.--cc
