Finer subdivision of items 1.1 to 1.4 for radio/audio
Here's a list of distinctive educational functions for radio/audio. Apart from some of the access/control advantages of Radio (e.g. cheapness, news and information, wide public exposure) there are also distinctive cognitive and experiential formats for radio and audio-vision:
- informal overviews of a topic, given by a (personalised) teacher's voice
- remedial tutorials, help with exam preparation given by a sympathetic sounding teacher's voice
- opinions from interviewees, their tone of voice indicating strength of feeling,
- enhancing 'flavour'
- documentaries to analyse, evaluate and discuss (note that, as in TV, time can be condensed by editing real world processes, hence facilitating analysis)
- models of good practice (e.g. foreign language pronunciation, music, drama, social interaction)
- talking through an abstract process, as commentary over accompanying materials, e.g. text, formulae, technical drawings, real objects.
- talking students through practical procedures (home experiments, computer operation) so that hands and eyes are free for practical work
Within these formats, distinctive ways in which radio or audio can help learning are:
- Modelling a dynamic process with a simplified version (e.g. a dramatised enactment of parent/teenager verbal interaction)
- Simulation of social processes (i.e. exploring various versions of the processes, e.g. different approaches in an interview)
- Illustrating abstract concepts with evocative real-world examples (e.g. through documentary programmes)
- Precise control over what the listener hears (including intonation, phrasing, pacing), structured into an educationally digestible story, e.g. informal overview of disparate elements, given by a personalized, sympathetic human voice.
Audio-vision
The scope of audio is considerably widened when it is coupled with visual materials, as is the usual practice at the UKOU. Moreover, it is designed as a genuine composite medium, audio-vision, in which the visuals constitute essential core content (rather than mere ornamentation or focusing mechanisms). As mentioned earlier, this medium has been found to be both popular and effective: a teacher can demonstrate technical/logical skills, and/or guide students in acquiring such skills, by talking through equations, flow-charts, architectural plans, etc.
These visual materials can include any existing materials that are part of the subject matter. Alternatively, the material can be specially designed for use with the audio. In either case, the balance between the role of the visuals and that of the audio can be varied as desired. At one extreme, the visuals can be pure source material for the audio to teach about. At the other extreme, the visual material can include its own (printed) teaching, in outline, which the audio elaborates on (Koumi, 1994).
There are many topics and teaching functions which can benefit from such uses of pictures but don't need moving pictures (i.e. don't need video). For these topics, audio-vision can be cost-effective alternative to video. This is even the case for topics that would benefit from video but don't because the potential of video is drastically under-achieved due to inadequacies in facilities or staff expertise.
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